All the Way

It was election day in the Bahamas, and the procession of straw-hatted dancers snaked through the back streets of Nassau, holding hands and twirling to drums and blaring horns mounted on trucks. To wildly different tunes, they all sang the same campaign lyrics: "All the way! All the way!" The same day, Premier Lynden O. Pindling, 38, strolled into a new suburban school that his government had built on neighboring Andros Island, and cast his vote. "I think a win is sure," he said as he popped into his car. Then he popped back out again and, in mock alarm, asked: "Don't you think so?" The crowd laughed and cheered.

Fifteen months after its upset victory over the United Bahamian Party, Pindling's Progressive Liberal Party was as close to being a sure thing as the next day's bright, sunny weather. When the votes were finally in, the Progressive Liberals--who had been struggling along with a one-vote majority in the Bahama's 38-seat House of Assembly--finished with 29 seats, compared with only seven for the United Bahamians. Besides giving Pindling a healthy majority, the vote also meant that once and for all he had buried the predominately white United Bahamians and the "Bay Street Boys," who had run the islands' commerce and politics for well over a decade. At the same time, the election put the destiny of the British colony firmly in the hands of the islands' 120,000 Negroes, who make up 85% of the population.

More for Education. With so much at stake, the campaign was bitter, and some violence even broke out briefly last month when gangs of rock-throwing Negro toughs disrupted several United Bahamian rallies. But in the end, Pindling's record was the big issue, and voters had to agree that the chunky, soft-spoken moderate was running the country pretty well. Despite fears that Pindling would stir up racial tensions and frighten business away, the islands have remained calm, and both investment and tourism are on the in crease. The islands' three casinos are packed every night and are thriving despite a $1,000,000 tax that Pindling levied on each gambling house last year.

Pindling has also more than doubled government spending on education ($10.6 million this year) and has commissioned a long-range economic plan by Puerto Rican Consultant Teodoro Moscoso, the guiding hand behind Puerto Rico's "Operation Bootstrap" and a key organizer of the Alliance for Progress. Another Pindling achievement was ordering salaries for legislative and Cabinet members, thus eliminating the old system of fat "consultant's fees"--really payoffs and bribes--that flourished among the United Bahamian Party's government officials (TIME, Sept 8).

No Sign of a Break. Pindling's term runs for five years, and within that time, the question of independence will almost certainly come up. Pindling has already asked Britain for control of the police and a say in the appointment of the Governor General. But right now, his government gives no sign of wanting complete independence. Though Britain provides no actual financial aid to the islands, Bahamian ties with the motherland remain strong; and the desire to preserve those ties is--for the present, at least--one of the few rare points of agreement between the United Bahamians and Pindling's Progressive Liberals.

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