The Tribune

FREE National Movement leader Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday took stock of his party's election defeat, acknowledging they lost the support of many women and young people.

Speaking at thanksgiving service at Christian Tabernacle, Dr Minnis thanked the FNM for choosing him as their leader.

He said, "I believe we can all be proud of the unwavering support and backing that our party continues to enjoy from its core membership.

"Nevertheless, we have just come through a bruising general election which returned us to the opposition benches in the House of Assembly.

"While more than 65,000 Bahamian voters gave us their support, we failed to convince a sufficient number of voters to return us as the government of the Bahamas. Most particularly, we did not hold the support of the majority of Bahamian women and we did not win the youth vote."

Dr Minnis said he met with many people over the past several weeks who expressed their frustrations about the party.

He said that although many of them voted in support of other political parties, they acknowledged that the FNM's track record of delivering on its commitments and promises "is unmatchable."

"Others told me that in our single-mindedness to achieve our goals we seemed to lose sight of the concerns of some of our supporters and hence we lost our appeal to significant numbers of our youth and indeed, of women voters, a critical voting block as they are the influencers of our future," he said.

"This has been an especially bitter pill for so many of us who gave our all and did our best to get our message out to the electorate this time. I know that it was especially difficult because the Free National Movement has such a proud tradition and such a strong record of supporting women and supporting issues important to women - health, education, social welfare and equality of women in the work place and before the laws of our land.

"And, we have a legacy of putting children and young people first - investing in maternity and pre-natal care, improving access to health care for women and children, increasing classroom spaces and increasing the number of schools and making access easier for Bahamian students seeking tertiary level education and training both at home and abroad."

Dr Minnis said while the FNM accepts the will of the public, it also notes that no party gained an outright majority in the election, and as many as 18,000 did not exercise their right to vote.

"It is clear that our most urgent task must be to rebuild our support nation-wide drawing more people to the torch, broadening our base and increasing our support among the electorate. Our strategic plans and programmes toward that end will be fully unveiled in the upcoming sessions.

"Entrenched in our new vision is the greater involvement of our people in rebuilding support for our party.

Entrenched in our vision is the revitalisation of our community partnerships which would cement our commitment to the success of our neighbourhoods and society.

"We must return to the trenches and neighbourhoods from which we came, and we must hold high the torch of hope that will light the way out of the dangerous spiral which threatens to pull our people down," he said.

Dr Minnis said the FNM must always remember it was born out of a struggle for greater accountability and transparency.

"Our party cut its teeth in the fight to deliver our country from political corruption and victimisation, and it reached maturity as a government whose tenure and accomplishments have become the standard against which all future governments of the Bahamas will be judged," he said.