Progressive Liberal Party
political party in The Bahamas
The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) is a populist and centre-left political party in The Bahamas. Founded in 1953, it was the country's first national political party and is one of the two major parties in Bahamian politics, alongside the Free National Movement (FNM). The PLP led the movement for majority rule in the 1950s and 1960s and first came to power after the 1967 Bahamian general election.
Under Lynden Pindling, the PLP governed The Bahamas from 1967 to 1992 and oversaw the country's transition to independence in 1973. The party later returned to power under Perry Christie from 2002 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2017. After a major defeat in the 2017 Bahamian general election, it rebuilt under Philip Davis, returned to government in the 2021 Bahamian general election, and won a second consecutive term in the 2026 Bahamian general election.
Ideology and political position
The Progressive Liberal Party is generally described as a centre-left party. Bahamian politics has traditionally been dominated by the centre-left PLP and the centre-right Free National Movement.
The party emerged as a political vehicle for Bahamians of African descent in opposition to the colonial ruling group and became the principal party of majority rule in the 1950s and 1960s. In its early period in government, the PLP advocated stronger state control of the economy, greater Bahamian ownership of business enterprises and the replacement of foreign workers by Bahamians.
The public source identifies “Progressive Liberal Party” as political party in The Bahamas. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Progressive, Liberal and Party.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2566823. VIAF identifies the subject as 127008330. The Library of Congress control number is no2002094544. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 1967, 1992 and 1973.
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This entry incorporates text from “Progressive Liberal Party” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.