Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham recently remarked that nobody can “tief” an election.

Perhaps.

But politics has always been less concerned with stealing elections than with making sure voters remember who showed up with gifts shortly before polling day.

Which brings us to the curious case of the $1.56 million in building material vouchers that suddenly appeared in the closing weeks before the 2026 general election.

According to reporting by The Nassau Guardian and the Government’s own procurement disclosures, the Davis administration approved approximately $1.56 million in building material vouchers for residents of Grand Bahama and Abaco just weeks before Bahamians headed to the polls.

The records reportedly show that on April 13, 2026, the government awarded a $413,436.99 no-bid contract to Contractors Direct Ltd. for building material vouchers and another $250,000 no-bid contract to Premier Importers Limited for the same purpose. Combined with approximately $900,000 in voucher contracts awarded in March, the total reached roughly $1.56 million in the final weeks before election day.

Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with helping storm victims rebuild their homes.

The question is why it apparently took an election campaign to discover that they needed help.

After all, the plight of homeowners in Abaco and Grand Bahama was one of the central political arguments advanced by then Opposition Leader Philip Davis and the Progressive Liberal Party during the 2021 campaign.

Bahamians were told repeatedly that families affected by Hurricane Dorian had been neglected by the previous Free National Movement administration.

The message was simple:

Elect us and we will do better.

The PLP won.

Then came 2022.

Then 2023.

Then 2024.

Then 2025.

And suddenly, as if by political miracle, wallets opened, vouchers appeared and building materials started flowing just as election signs were being hammered onto utility poles around the country.

One almost must marvel at the timing.

Apparently, these roofs were not leaking in 2022.

The walls were not collapsing in 2023.

The need was not urgent in 2024.

But by early 2026, the crisis had apparently become so severe that over $1.5 million had to be mobilised immediately and through no-bid contracts no less.

Talk about efficient government.

The Official Opposition and its leader, Michael Pintard, have repeatedly called for details surrounding the programme and questioned its administration and timing.

Meanwhile, despite multiple opportunities in Parliament, Prime Minister Davis declined to directly address the allegations surrounding the vouchers programme.

That silence inevitably creates questions.

If this programme was part of a long-term reconstruction strategy, where was it for four years?

If these families were genuinely abandoned in 2021, why did they apparently remain abandoned until 2026?

And perhaps most importantly, why did disaster recovery begin to move at campaign speed only when the campaign itself began?

There is also the awkward matter of reported vouchers carrying the name of then PLP candidate and current MP Bradley Fox.

Again, there has been no finding of wrongdoing and no evidence proving that votes were bought.

But governments should understand that perception matters.

When public money begins moving rapidly immediately before an election, when elected officials refuse to answer questions about the programme and when transparency is replaced by silence, people are inevitably going to ask uncomfortable questions.

Perhaps this is why figures such as Fred Mitchell have historically shown little enthusiasm for measures such as campaign finance reform and stronger transparency legislation.

Sunlight, after all, has always been the natural enemy of political convenience.

The biggest irony of all is that the people of Abaco and Grand Bahama genuinely needed help.

Many of them needed it in 2021.

Many needed it in 2022.

Many needed it in every year since.

Disaster recovery, however, appears to have been placed on a different construction schedule.

One tied not to hurricane season.

But to election season.

The people of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas deserve better.

END