Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
AS the Free National Movement prepares for the 2017 general election, party Chairman Michael Pintard said the opposition will avoid the “presidential-style campaigning” that it believes was a costly mistake during the 2012 election cycle.
“We are running as a team (in 2017),” he told The Tribune yesterday, when asked about plans for the next election.
“We are not going to run a presidential-style campaign. It’s going to be that we have a very deep bench, a wonderful group of people from all demographics.
“We ran a presidential-style race the last time where everything was contingent on leadership. From our standpoint, the PLP ran a slightly different contest.”
The FNM’s last campaign centred mostly on the leadership of then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, while the PLP painted itself as the party with a “new generation” of leaders.
The FNM continues to interview prospective candidates for various constituencies. Fifty people have been interviewed so far by the party’s vetting and investigation team, 10 of whom are expected to be ratified by the party’s Candidates Committee next week and subsequently introduced to the public, he said.
“The overwhelming majority of persons who have been interviewed, more than 75 per cent, are new to frontline politics and they come from a wide range of backgrounds but are predominately white collar professionals, though not confined to that group,” he said. “Among them we would have economists, attorneys, a lot of entrepreneurs, people who are running very successful companies in the country, environmentalists, retired law enforcement officers, some candidates who represented other political organizations in the most recent elections, as well as some well known activists who previously had very little interest in frontline politics. These people have joined the FNM because of disillusionment with the PLP and feel the best chance to unseat that party is to join the FNM.”
He said the party was attracting a certain calibre of candidates due to its policies.
He added: “We believe in smaller government. We don’t believe the government has to be responsible for everything. The government doesn’t have to be in every area of your life.”
Mr Pintard said once the party has fleshed out its policy positions, it will begin dialogue with members of the public.
“We will roll out our policies in town hall meetings set to commence in October. We will (first) release our comprehensive position on immigration, inclusive of how to deal with unregulated developments, including shanty towns, in a humane way; how to reclaim land when some wealthy residents have (acquired) it without regard for law; how to answer the backlog of citizenship requests and how to deal with repatriation in a cost effective and humane way so people are properly documented before they are repatriated.”
Mr Pintard said through weekly meetings and occasional retreats involving “200 to 300” participants, the FNM has been working “in earnest” for the past six months to establish a platform for 2017 and a rationale for seeking election that it can articulate to Bahamians.
In addition to running with a focus on “the team,” Mr Pintard said the party plans to run on a more radical policy platform than it did in 2012.
“You will see ideas being offered that weren’t offered before,” he said. “We won’t be afraid to say ‘let’s put some term limits in place.’ Let’s put some independence in so we could have an independent Department of Public Prosecutions, for example, or to engage the public in a conversation about whether we should have an attorney general who is appointed or who is elected. We are going to talk about how we can reduce the power of the prime minister, who has way more power than he should have.”
The party is not oblivious to the challenge of running a policy-focused political campaign in an environment where personality attacks often get the most attention, Mr Pintard said. He added that for the “15 to 20 per cent of swing voters” who care deeply about what parties bring to the table, “staying on message” will be important.
Comments
Wideawake 9 years, 2 months ago
"We are going to talk about how we can reduce the power of the Prime Minister, who has way more power than he should have". Hope HAM goes along with that!
The sooner the slate of candidates is presented the better!
"TEAM FNM" is a concept that many voters will embrace, as opposed to the "ONE MAXIMUM LEADER" concept that most voters are sick and tired of!
TalRussell 9 years, 2 months ago
Comrades, share your knees with me at the alter, as we kneel in prayer, for the sake the red chairman Pintard, that Papa Hubert does remains orbiting up in his Cooper's Town retirement.
Salute Hubert Ingraham's Staying In Retirement
............//https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU5e1AV1cy0
jackflash 9 years, 2 months ago
OK
Which one of you Comrades Red shirts turned the recording on saying 'Hubert is back'
in the bushes outside Tals bedroom window?
I thought that we were still running the 'dock recording'!
concernedcitizen 9 years, 2 months ago
We playin the video now of Hubert getting off he boat from Abaco at Baha mar dock to announce he return as leader ,right outside Tals window from midnight til six am
TalRussell 9 years, 2 months ago
Go ahead Comrades, make fun with acting likes this 'dock' is but up in me own mind.
To the contrary, a friend an avid sports fisherman having just returned to the Florida Keys, from The Berry Islands, called to tell me that the most spectacular view now visible, is you can actually see Izmarlin's Cable Beach 'dock,' from just about any vantage point of the Berry Islands cluster of some 30 cays.
iamcitizen 9 years, 2 months ago
Mr. Pintard’s “team approach” to governance is an euphemism for “Yes, we are aware that we have, in Mr. Minnis, a weak, unappealing, ineffective and uninspiring leader, We will, therefore, circle the wagons around him and hope for the best.”
Hoping for the beat is not good enough for The Bahamas and the Bahamian people who yearn for competent leaders. They are looking for leaders who, firstly, love The Bahamas and who will dedicate themselves to the task of rescuing the nation. A mixture of bright and talented young Bahamians sans the oversized egos and who will put the country before all else together with experienced leaders to nurture and guide the inexperienced.
We have over the past three years witnessed the failed attempted make over of the FNM in Mr. Minnis’ and some of his supporters’ Image. We have witnessed the dismantling of the FNM’s strategic management and marketing team. We have witnessed the attempt by Minnis, Pintard and others to dismantle the party’s legacy. They act as though the period 1990 to 2012 never happened. Then there are the others who say they have gotten their party back.
The FNM led by Minnis and others is going nowhere fast. If they would redirect the energy they expend to further divide the party to wresting the government from the incompetent and corrupt PLP they could succeed in winning the next election.
Time is of the essence though. There is a short window in which the FNM can correct its present self immolating course by bringing FNMs together, embracind its legacy, healing its wounds and reengaging those who have been pushed aside as a result of the “Ingraham, Era Is Over” speech delivered by Minnis in Abaco.
The party’s council, if it’s wise, can make this happen before its too late. The party cannot go into the next election and succeed in its present state.
TalRussell 9 years, 2 months ago
Comrade Iamcitizen, is the typical red shirt, full of accusations but no where is there any mention of a real solution, much less with whose shoulders the real blame must land on.
First, admit to the name of the individual who brought your party to her knees, and to that just look northernmost, toward Cooper's Town.
iamcitizen 9 years, 2 months ago
With the greatest of respect Tall the above mentioned comments were not directed to those of your ilk. Those to whom it was directed have received the message, i can assure.
TalRussell 9 years, 2 months ago
Thankfully, I have never read a red bloggers insult directed at me personally, that has worked to the advantage of the insulting leveling blogger.
It will never happen to upset me - that I would ever turn a bright red.
Publius 9 years, 2 months ago
These FNMs nowadays are the epitome of weak sauce. Why would the Chairman of the FNM need to insult and take digs at his party's former leader and the nation's former PM just to make a point about what the FNM may or may not be doing now? Who does that? What's so ignorant about that is his party's base are supporters of their former leader so exactly who does he think he is hurting by being so limp wristed? If the FNM has something to offer the nation now, simply tell us what that is instead of taking up newspaper space to let us know how obsessed you are with another man. This is a key reason the FNM is so weak today. They cannot and will not build on one another's strengths and abilities, they instead seek out every opportunity possible to pull one another down.
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 2 months ago
Even that white fella Brent Symonette stands a better chance of becoming PM as an independent than Minnis and the FNM do of winning the next general election. It takes serious money to win an election and most FNM candidates are going to learn that the hard way because the usual financial backers of the FNM will not be giving a penny to any party led by Minnis. To get funding, Minnis and the FNM will be cutting deals with the devil....but not to worry, Minnis is the devil's favoured son!
banker 9 years, 2 months ago
You will be really surprised to see who is backing the FNM with cash and who is backing Minnis. And you will be really surprised to see the kind of campaign that Pintard will run.
The "Minnis-is-a-weak-leader" chestnut is for those expecting a politician, not a policy maker with a plan to pick up the tatters of the country.
There will be surprises, and they will be pleasant. Fully expecting the PLP to respond with the Valentine Grimes Ballots-in-the-suitcase stratagem , but that too will be futile.
The campaign will get real interesting shortly.
Wideawake 9 years, 2 months ago
Hope this coming election will be supervised by outside "scrutinizers" so that, this time, the election will be fair and democratic!
TalRussell 9 years, 2 months ago
Comrade Banker, how much longer do you wish give Minnis, before he starts demonstrating “fresh” political strategies?
No red leader can win come the 2017 General, by trotting out the same old, failed election promises of Papa Hubert.
Then if that's the only case they can present to voters, why not just bring back the fisherman from Cooper's Town? At least the voters will know what they're being asked to voting on.
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