Perspectives on The Golden Isles By-Election - Monday 24 November, 2025
From Sean McWeeny, former PLP Cabinet Minister and Attorney General
Some random takeaways on yesterday’s bye-election:
1. That crown on Pintard’s head can rest more securely today than yesterday. By performing impressively in yesterday’s bye-election (even winning a majority of the polling divisions 8-6), the FNM and Pintard can point to all that as evidence that he is indeed a viable leader of a resurgent Party - no need to send a SOS out to Papa!
2. The COI lost its deposit yesterday (you need to get more than 1/6th or 16.6% of the total votes cast to save your deposit). With only 6% of the vote, the COI fell well short of that.
Frankly, for all the noise they were making and all the social media coverage they were getting, I thought they would have done better than they did (then again voters may have had Lincoln-fatigue by the end of it all). Still, they prevented the PLP from winning an outright majority of the total votes cast yesterday. It could also be argued that the COI cost the FNM the election yesterday by garnering 221 votes which, if added to the FNM’s tally, would have given the FNM the victory. But that’s what spoilers do. And the COI are certainly shaping up to be spoilers in “close“ seats in the next General Election. Bottom line : they can't win but they can cause you to lose.
3. Darren Pickstock has a lot to be personally proud of and so do Brave Davis, Jerome Fitzgerald and Kevin Simmons (the latter two as campaign managers). Darren came into Golden Isle a virtual unknown to constituents (in contrast to the FNM’s candidate who had good solid history there). In just 41 days, Darren made the rounds, showed himself to be a class act from start to finish, and ended up in victory.
4. Finally, the PLP has its work cut out for it. Yesterday’s results will no doubt be seen (and felt) as a knock in the head, all the more so when one considers the massive firepower and resources the government had brought to bear.
All of it turned out to be a bit underwhelming if the final count is anything to go by. But the PLP will no doubt see the results as a call to re-assess, reset, and do some things differently in the run-up to the Big One. If, however, yesterday’s results are interpreted as an affirmation that all is hunky-dorry and right on track, or if nothing but excuses are forthcoming now as to why the PLP didn’t get more votes yesterday, the cycle that has seen every single governing party in the past five General Elections get tossed out after just one term is bound to repeat itself - again. Sean
