Above: Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham (BIS Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has “rung the bell,” setting the country’s next elections for May 7.

Ingraham rang the bell following the dissolution of Parliament on Tuesday, setting the date for the upcoming 2012 election.

Ingraham’s Free National Movement will face off against the opposition Progressive Liberal Party, led by former Prime Minister Perry Christie, and the upstart Democratic National Alliance, led by former Free National Movement MP Branville McCartney.

Ingraham called the upcoming vote a “fight we will not lose,” saying he asked all Bahamians to join in, citing crime as a major issue in the upcoming election, a “blight on our society that knows no party and no creed.”

“Whatever the outcome, this will be an historic election on many levels,” he said. “As we begin this process, I want to ask all of our citizens to commit themselves to an election that is truly fitting of this great democracy of ours.”

In a statement, McCartney criticized Ingraham’s decision to call the election at the time, saying that “after giving multiple hints that he he would announce, the PM has overcome his fear of being rejected from leadership, the fear of being forced into retirement, he has decided to call the election.”

Christie, in a statement on social media, said “Get ready Bahamas, we must restore order in this country through the PLP.”