The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE FNM will finally announce today who their candidate will be for the by-election in North Abaco, FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis said yesterday.

Dr Minnis confirmed yesterday that members of the National Central Council will meet tonight at 7.30 to select the North Abaco candidate.

"There was a process that all the candidates had to go through. A number of things had to be done before we selected who would replace Mr Ingraham, that process took time. We are having a council meeting and will announce the candidate following that meeting. Just how long that meeting will take, I cannot say," he said.

Dr Minnis also denied that he or former FNM leader Hubert Ingraham was "pushing" for Greg Gomez to be the North Abaco candidate.

"It is a democratic process. All of our candidates go through a process, not I or any one individual will select who it will be," he said.

"The candidates are submitted to the board, to the association and then they are vetted. The association then sends a recommendation to the executive candidates committee. We then meet and go through the candidates and ask them questions then a recommendation goes to the council. The council will then ask questions, not one man, the council and then someone will be selected. It is a democratic process. I am backing no one in particular. I will state the facts of the finding and the recommendation but at the end of it all, the council does the final ratification."

The four potential candidates are Greg Gomez, Cay Mills, Jackson Macintosh and Perry Thomas.

Last week, former prime minister Hubert Ingraham said he wants Greg Gomez to have a chance at running in the North Abaco by-election.

However, Mr Gomez does not meet the constitutional requirements to run for public office as he lived in the United States and did not move back to the Bahamas until August 2011.

According to the constitution, a person who is eligible to be elected to the House of Assembly must have been an ordinary resident of the Bahamas for a period of not less than one year immediately before the date of his nomination for election.

Mr Ingraham said: “Greg Gomez, who was one of the four persons who applied to the party for a nomination, has spent some time in the US and he hasn't been back home for quite a year yet.

“He has applied and I want him to be considered like the other four candidates and my postponement will facilitate that.

“His father has been my supporter for many years and in fact all the candidates have been my supporters at one time or the other.”

The former Prime Minister also said that Mr Gomez was “victimised” by the current PLP administration as soon as they entered office.

“Greg Gomez was selected by the public sector to be an island administrator,” he said.

“The election came and he was told no, he cannot be hired. He made an appointment to see the minister, the minister gave him the appointment and then did not see him.

“He was told by a senior official, ‘Oh, you know why – you are red’, and she pointed to the colour on her dress.”

Mr Ingraham said Mr Gomez has a story to tell and he will see that he is able to tell it.