The results are in and 54 per cent of the Bermudian electorate has spoken. The Progressive Labour Party forms the Government for the next five years. However, it is a hollow victory. Garnering less than 50 per cent of those that voted with one of the lowest voter turnouts in recent times — in fact less than that of 2020 at the height of Covid-19 — should be concerning to the Premier.

Rather than make a statement about how this is problematic and what his government will do to encourage voters to come to the polls, the Premier chose to disappear to Barbados for a Caricom conference without appointing a Cabinet.

But what happened? Why was turnout so poor? In my view, the top four reasons are as follows:

1, The desires of our students were ignored by calling the election in February. The very demographic who has the most years ahead of them were disenfranchised

2, Many voters were apathetic about voting. They simply did not care. They felt that not much would change no matter who governs Bermuda

3, Other voters did not come to the polls as a protest against both the PLP and the OBA for various reasons, including concerns about particular candidates, irritation at the negative campaign smearing and to send a message that they are simply pissed off

4, The Parliamentary Register is out of date. In other words, there are thousands of people on the register that have passed away, left the island or who are incorrectly registered. I believe the register is inaccurate by up to 20 per cent or more. I simply cannot believe given our population issues that there are more than 45,000 voters in the jurisdiction

I am of the view that the voters want more from us as elected and appointed officials. That is why there were so many independent and third-party candidates in this election. Too many people obviously feel that the PLP and the OBA simply do not represent their interests effectively, and that is worrying. Given that there are 36 seats in the House of Assembly, 11 in the Senate and more than 100 government boards and quangos to fill, we need all hands on deck, but with so many people simply not participating in the democratic process, the burden on those that do serve is massive.

We really need to do things differently. Before the election, the Premier essentially said he was not willing to work with the OBA but would work with what this newspaper labelled “fringe groups”. That is crazy.

Whether the Premier likes it or not, the people of Bermuda expect us all to try as best as we can to row in the same direction. That does not mean the OBA as the Official Opposition is supposed to just roll over and stay quiet. Far from it. We will agree where agreement is in the best interests of Bermuda and disagree where it is not. However, our job is to hold the Government to account, and this is even more important given that the less than 50 per cent of voters who actually voted cast their ballot for the PLP.

As for the recent campaign. I was, like many of you, disgusted by the PLP’s smear campaign against me personally. Frankly, it was a disgrace. Thankfully, there were a number of PLP parliamentary group members who contacted me directly to distance themselves from the nastiness and vitriol, in addition to the Emperial Group, my party leaders and the many members of the public who expressed their disappointment and dissatisfaction with the rot being spewed. In a community that professes to love one another, the writers and producers of the smears should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

How dare my nationality be questioned.

How dare my loyalty to Bermuda be in doubt when I have four children being raised here.

How dare the lies are allowed to continue.

The hypocrisy is real and needs to end.

With that said, I take this opportunity to thank the voters of Constituency 20 for voting for me on February 18. For those constituents that stayed home or voted for Iesha Musson or Vic Ball, I am still your representative in Parliament and will do my best to serve the entire community.

I also want to publicly thank both Iesha and Vic for running a clean campaign and for the camaraderie on Election Day as we greeted voters. If we as a community could come together like the three of us did, then Bermuda would be in a far better place.

• Michael Fahy, a former Cabinet minister, is the One Bermuda Alliance MP for Pembroke South West (Constituency 20). He can be contacted on opedfahy@gmail.com