The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

WAYNE Munroe hinted he could return to government in an appointed role after becoming the only sitting Cabinet minister to lose his seat in the 2026 general election, saying yesterday he was disappointed but not demoralised by his defeat in Freetown.

Mr Munroe, who lost the constituency to Free National Movement candidate Lincoln Deal, said he had been told something could happen today at 10am, but declined to say more before any official announcement. One possibility would be him being appointed Attorney General.

His defeat was one of the most striking individual results of the election, coming as the Progressive Liberal Party swept back to office and secured a second consecutive term under Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

Unofficial results showed the PLP winning 33 of 41 seats, nearly matching its 2021 landslide. However, Mr Munroe’s loss showed that Freetown voters were willing to oust a high-profile government minister even as the country broadly returned the administration to power.

Mr Munroe said his commitment to Freetown would continue regardless of whether he returned to government.

“What I would say, having lost, I would feel no better if other persons had lost, and I feel no worse that I am the only one who lost,” he told The Tribune on Tuesday.

“I do not like to lose, so I’m disappointed. I'm not devastated or demoralised, but as I said during the campaign, for me, Freetown is my ministry. I was sent there by Archbishop Gomez back in the beginning of 2000, and I have been there since then, so I will continue as I did when I wasn’t successful in 2017, to continue with my ministry.”

“Freetown has been my ministry, so this isn’t the end for me in Freetown,” he said. “Frontline politics is a matter of and so far beyond my ministry, which is at the will of the Progressive Liberal Party. Any participation in government is at the will of the prime minister, and I am not an egotistical man to think that I can dictate those things.”

Mr Munroe also offered pointed advice to Mr Deal, warning him not to make promises he cannot keep and urging him to focus on programmes that help many people rather than a few.

“He didn't look very happy at the recount,” Mr Munroe said. “I do not know why, but he will have to measure what it is that he can do.”

“I would advise him to try to be a man of your word. Do not promise things that you cannot deliver. And as far as I'm concerned, you do things to help the many, not the few. And so the school breakfast was the many, the medical equipment was the many, all of my programmes was the many and if he wants to not be eaten alive in Freetown, he'd better go to help the many and not the few. The people will not tolerate that.”

Mr Munroe previously lost Freetown in 2017 before winning the seat during the PLP’s 2021 landslide. He said he had been comforted by residents who reached out after his defeat.

“After what appeared to be a defeat, I have had people coming and commiserating and highlighting what I've done for them, some of it even I forgot, because I'm not the type of person to go out and bring cameras with me to show me helping people, because I think that offends their pride,” he said.

“But it was really comforting for people whom I have helped over the past five years and beyond, to see that they feel a need to comfort me; it's as if they took it harder than I did. But to hear feedback that people appreciate what you did is very heartening and comforting.”

Mr Deal, described by the FNM as an entrepreneur and operations executive, served for years within the party, including in the Torchbearers Association, the party’s youth arm, and as national vice chairman.