Above: Bahamian Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes and new Senator Kwasi Thompson (BIS Photo/Letisha Henderson)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Bahamas’ Opposition Free National Movement’s senators were sworn in Wednesday at a ceremony at Government House.

Governor General Sir Arthur Foulkes performed the ceremony and gave the new senators their instruments of appointment.

The Free National Movement was ousted from power in the country’s May 7 vote in a large victory for the then-opposition Progressive Liberal Party.

The new senators include Thomas Desmond Bannister, Heather Hunt, Zhivargo Laing and James Kwasi Thompson.

The PLP captured 29 of 38 seats in the election; four members of the Bahamian senate are appointed on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition.

Former Health Minister Hubert Minnis is the new leader of the opposition, succeeding former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, who is retiring from public life.