The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE FNM yesterday announced that Carl Bethel has been appointed to replace former Education Minister Desmond Bannister in the Senate.

A former Cabinet Minister under the previous Ingraham administration, Mr Bethel is to assume the role of Opposition leader of business in the Upper Chamber.

Mr Bethel will also step down from the position he now holds as a part of the Constitutional Reform Commission.

While the Senate post was officially made vacant on Monday, a letter of resignation from Bannister was sent to Dr Hubert Minnis a month ago, on September 1. Former State Finance Minister Zhivargo Laing had initially held the position, but he relinquished the title of Senator late in 2012.

Speaking to the media at the FNM’s headquarters, Mr Bethel said he was eager to serve with the hope of bringing vast experience and vision to help the Christie administration, which he called a sometimes faltering and stumbling government.

“Our country faces many great and difficult challenges,” Mr Bethel said, “for which in far too many instances the present government appears to be ill prepared and therefore ill-suited to tackle whether it is crime, the economy, the proposed new VAT in its disorganised presentation or whether it is the blighted dreams of thousands and thousands of young Bahamians who are seeking jobs.

“My primary hope will be and is to assist our new party leadership in their enormous, but necessary task in renewing this party of attracting the next generation of younger men and women who will rise and go to the forefront and take up the mantle of national leadership, yes, to help our new leadership in reinvigorating the Free National Movement at every level and in every constituency throughout the length and breadth of our Bahama land.”

Mr Bethel has served as Minister of State for Economic Development, Minister of Economic Development, Attorney General and Minister of Education, Youth Sports and Culture. He was the MP for the Seabreeze Constituency.