The Tribune

By DANA

SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

CRITICISING the actions of Speaker Kendal Major as “wrong”, DNA Leader Branville McCartney questioned how a comment can be withdrawn in the House of Assembly if it was already expunged from the record.

On Wednesday, police attempted to forcibly remove FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis from the House after he was named by the Speaker and banned for two sittings for refusing to withdraw comments regarding alleged PLP links with multi-millionaire fashion designer Peter Nygard.

Mr McCartney, former Bamboo Town MP, called the situation “unfortunate” and questioned the actions of Dr Major.

“The naming of the leader of the opposition is questionable whether or not the Speaker went about it the right way,” he said. “I understand the words used by Dr Minnis a few weeks back were expunged from the record and as a result, they were no longer there.

“By expunging, it means it’s at an end, it’s no longer there. But yet the Speaker was still asking Dr Minnis to withdraw. You cannot withdraw something that’s no longer there.

“If the Speaker really wanted to take the approach of having Dr Minnis withdraw, he should not have expunged it and he ought to have insisted that Dr Minnis produced evidence to support his statements and if Dr Minnis was unable to do it, then he ought to have named Dr Minnis, if he failed to withdraw.

“But by asking him to withdraw something that the Speaker had already expunged or taken away, I think it was wrong. That’s my view on it.”

Mr McCartney further criticised the matter as drawing focus away from stem cell Bill debate.

“I consider it a very important Bill that ought to have been debated by the government and the opposition,” he said.

“My views, reading the Bill, it could be very good for the Bahamas, it could be very good for the advancement of healthcare, once regulations and guidelines are put in place. Unfortunately, we won’t hear what the opposition has to say.”