The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE


Tribune Chief Reporter


lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Deputy Prime Minister Desmond Bannister said Free National Movement leader Michael Pintard should resign after the party’s crushing general election defeat on Tuesday, saying that is the traditional response when a leader loses a national election.

Mr Pintard, who retained Marco City, has not said whether he will remain the leader after the FNM won eight of 41 seats in Tuesday’s election, nearly matching its 2021 collapse. He said he would discuss his future with his team in the coming days.

The party flipped Freetown and MICAL, but lost St Barnabas, leaving it badly outnumbered in Parliament after the Progressive Liberal Party secured a second consecutive term. In a shock to some, the Coalition of Independents ran competitively with the FNM, especially in many New Providence seats.

Some senior FNM officials privately believe Mr Pintard should remain leader for now and focus on maintaining stability until a convention is called. Others believe he should resign immediately and allow fresh leadership to rebuild and energise the party’s base.

“The tradition in politics is that if you lose an election, you resign,” Mr Bannister said. “That doesn’t mean that you don’t have a chance to come back at some stage.”

“You saw that with Dr Minnis when he stepped aside and then he tried to come back. Many people throughout history have done that, but the tradition is to resign.”

Mr Bannister said stepping aside would not prevent Mr Pintard from attempting a comeback later.

FNM Secretary General Serfent Rolle, however, suggested yesterday that it is too early for resignation calls, saying the party has a process for dealing with leadership matters.

He said party councils have been meeting to assess where members stand, examine the party’s finances and discuss the way forward.

“We have to have a stable party, and that’s what I’m going to be fighting for,” he said. “People want blood all the time because they like drama, and it’s all that. But nobody can die for that. It will happen. There will ultimately be a convention.”

As party leaders conduct a post-mortem on the defeat, questions remain about why the FNM’s message failed to connect with voters.

Carlyle Bethel, a former FNM Torchbearers Youth Association official, called in a statement for restructuring, renewal and an end to internal strife, saying the party cannot continue as usual. He said loyal FNM supporters have felt disposable and ignored for too long, adding that the culture must change.

Mr Bannister agreed, saying many voters felt alienated by the party’s leadership team.

“These are loyal FNM supporters who decided that they’d been alienated by the party,” he said. “Whether reasonable or not, they didn’t support the party in the election.

“These are people who campaigned for the FNM all their adult life. Many of them actually led the campaigns of PLP candidates who were successful.”

He said the FNM must develop a strategy to reconnect with disengaged supporters.

Mr Bannister also raised concern about vote buying and undue influence during the campaign, saying: “I’m alarmed that almost every candidate I saw was breaking the law in terms of what benefits they give to voters.”

He said the country must strengthen and better enforce laws prohibiting inducements intended to influence voters.

“Quite frankly, the FNM has really good lawyers, and they should consider whether they want to take action in the courts with respect to that Grand Cay incident and the Moore’s Island incident, the benefits that were conferred by the government on voters just prior to the election,” he said.

Mr Bannister also credited the PLP for running a masterful, well-funded campaign and urged the FNM to examine how political organisations are structured and prepared for elections.

He said leadership focused on policy should not necessarily be responsible for election organisation, adding that the FNM must become more professional and efficient.

He said low voter turnout suggests the PLP may still represent a minority government, with some voters not necessarily supporting the governing party but also not seeing the FNM as a viable alternative.

The party could face a competitive leadership contest.

In addition to Mr Pintard, successful FNM candidates included J Leo Ferguson in MICAL, Lincoln Deal in Freetown, Kwasi Thompson in East Grand Bahama, Dr Andre Rollins in Long Island, Adrian White in St Anne’s, Frazette Gibson in Central Grand Bahama, and Michela Barnett-Ellis in Killarney.

Mr Bannister called the candidates a highly competent group and said any of them could serve as the FNM’s parliamentary leader.