The National Assembly's origins can be traced back to 1729 when a Representative Assembly was set up for what was then a British colony. It was formed with 24 members (16 for New Providence, and four each for Harbour Island and Eleuthera).[3] The first election after the country got independence from the United Kingdom was in 1977, when it had 38 constituencies.[4] Since then, it has had a varying number of constituencies in the assembly. For the 1987 and the 1992 elections, it had 49 constituencies.[5][6] The current constituencies are based on the recommendations of the Constituency Commission in 2021.[7] The commission conducts a review of the electoral boundaries every five years[7] and makes recommendations to ensure that there is parity of numbers in each constituency.[8] It suggests that each constituency have around 5,000 voters with a margin of 500.[9] During boundary review, the commission tries to keep constituencies roughly the same size while considering other factors like the "the needs of sparsely populated areas as well as geographic conditions". The constituency of MICAL is the smallest considering the number of voters (1,392), while Golden Isles is the largest with 7,391 voters.[10]
Constituencies
Constituencies of the House of Assembly of the Bahamas
^ abThompson, Taneka (28 November 2024). "Constituencies Commission to begin work next month". The Nassau Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 January 2025. Retrieved 7 January 2025. A boundaries report prepared by the previous commission in 2021 recommended to the governor general that no new constituencies be added, maintaining the status quo of 39 seats in the House of Assembly
^Dames, Candia (14 April 2021). "The business of boundaries". The Nassau Guardian. Archived from the original on 13 January 2025. Retrieved 13 January 2025. Golden Isles in New Providence, the largest constituency as it relates to population, had 7,068 registered voters as of 10:44 a.m. on Monday ... Mayaguana, Inagua, Crooked Island, Acklins and Long Cay (MICAL) remains the constituency with the smallest population.
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