The Tribune

THE Free National Movement accused Fox Hill MP Fred Mitchell of trying to "copy" Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham in an effort to gain votes. In a statement, the FNM said the pledge by Mr Mitchell and the PLP to raise minimum wage was both "empty" and "late again". Speaking at the opening of his constituency office on Monday, Mr Mitchell said he would seek the support of his colleagues to raise the minimum wage from $150 per week to $210 per week. But the FNM noted that minimum wage was first introduced in the Bahamas as a part of Mr Ingraham's recovery and growth agenda. The statement said: "The PLP made their empty promise after failing to ever introduce a minimum wage in the first place during 25 years in office. The Christie administration also failed to raise the minimum wage during its disastrous and do-nothing five year term. "The very same opposition that put out job numbers that it claims it created from 2002 to 2007, and that cannot be verified by the Department of Statistics, is bogusly claiming that it will create a certain number of jobs in two years. "The same PLP that criticised the Ingraham administration's comprehensive infrastructural programme which created over 1,000 jobs and who also failed to build a single school in five years now wants the Bahamian people to believe that it can create jobs."