The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FNM Chairman Darron Cash yesterday urged party supporters “not to read too much” into party leader Dr Hubert Minnis’ assertion that he held the FNM together in the aftermath of defeat in the 2012 general election.

Mr Cash, who has announced that he plans to run for the post of FNM deputy leader, said Dr Minnis is in the midst of an intense leadership fight for which he is making a case for re-election.

He suggested that Dr Minnis was laying out how he contributed internally to the party after it was defeated by the Progressive Liberal Party more than two years ago.

The Tribune sought Mr Cash’s opinion after Dr Minnis said in a commercial posted on Monday to his Facebook page and You Tube account that it was he who held the “deflated” party together after its “greatest defeat”.

“Given the concerns expressed,” Mr Cash said in a press statement, “I do want to urge FNMs not to read too much into the leader’s statements.

“He is in an intense leadership fight and he is making the case for re-election. Internally people have to assess their own contributions just as the leader of the opposition is making his own case. I think rank and file FNMs understand his point; he is expressing his position as leader.

“For example, I have been in senior leadership positions within the FNM in two critical periods after we had lost general elections: in 2002 when I served as national treasurer and in this season after the 2012 defeat when I served as national chairman. We all know what we have given and sacrificed,” Mr Cash added.

“Even as (Prime Minister) Perry Christie victimised my family and thousands of FNMs, and as this government took jobs and contracts from FNMs, what has given me inspiration and hope has been the fact that hundreds of FNMs have persevered. They have held their torches high and they carried on. FNMs know that we owe our success to many, many people.”

Dr Minnis’ video began with the question: “Why should you be re-elected leader of the Free National Movement as opposed to Loretta Butler-Turner?”

“It was I who inherited the Free National Movement after its greatest defeat,” Dr Minnis said in the video.

“I inherited an organisation where people did not really want to be a part of because it was deflated at that time, and in fact individuals were running away. I inherited an organisation where we had in excess of a million dollars in bills. It was I who brought individuals together to help bring that bill under control.

“It was I who held the party together in spite of the insults and the negativity that may have been inflicted and thrown at me, but in spite of that I persevered because it was my responsibility as leader to hold the party together to prepare the party for the battle that we knew would eventually come, and now we are battle ready.”

The video followed the weekend release of a commercial by Mrs Butler-Turner, the current FNM deputy leader who plans to challenge Dr Minnis for his post at the November 21 convention.

This week Mrs Butler-Turner said she planned to continue her tour of the country, adding that she was honoured by the level of encouragement and positive feedback she has received from delegates, supporters and the general public.

She has declined to comment on the claims made in Dr Minnis’ video.