The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins last night said Prime Minister Perry Christie should resign immediately after spending millions “on two failed national referendums in a single term in office”.

Moments after it was announced that several constituencies overwhelmingly rejected all four of the Constitutional Referendum questions, Dr Rollins in a statement said he believes the vote was not about gender equality but rather “it was a referendum on a very unpopular PLP government and confirmation that this PLP government is not trustworthy”.

He said the government cannot escape blame for the outcome of this exercise.

“It is unheard of, and likely unprecedented, in any democratic nation for the head of the executive branch to suffer two national referendum defeats in a single term in office and not voluntarily offer his or her resignation, or be made to resign by a vote of no confidence initiated by his or her peers,” Dr Rollins said.

“The message delivered by the Bahamian people is pellucidly clear: the prime minister has lost his mandate to lead this country. Mr Christie ought to resign forthwith or be made to face a vote of no confidence initiated in the House of Assembly by both PLP and FNM members of Parliament.”

Dr Rollins also called for an accounting of all of the money that was spent by the government to fund the YES Bahamas campaign.

“The public is entitled to receive, during the course of the impending budget debate, a complete accounting for the expenditures related to the ‘vote yes’ campaign and an admission by the nation’s chief that the PLP - with its history of hypocritically opposing these same questions in the 2002 referendum and its recent failure to respect the results of the gaming referendum - was the wrong party to put these questions to the Bahamian people,” Dr Rollins said.

“Furthermore, it is unacceptable for the government to reportedly spend $6 million on these last two failed referendum exercises, without holding the prime minister and his cabinet directly responsible and accountable for their overwhelming failures.”

It is unclear where Dr Rollins got his figures on referendum spending from; however the government has said it spent $1.2 million on the 2013 gambling referendum and had budgeted $1.57 million for yesterday’s vote, for a total of $2.8 million according to The Tribune’s calculations. The government has not said how much it spent to fund the YES Bahamas campaign however.

In February, Dr Rollins predicted that the referendum would fail. At the time, he told The Tribune he believed the vote would become “a victim of the extreme unpopularity” of the Christie administration.

Stating that he has always held the view that women’s rights are human rights and that women ought to be treated as equal to men under the law, Dr Rollins said earlier this year that the push for gender equality was being used as a political tool by the Progressive Liberal Party because of the looming general election.

He suggested at the time that the government delay the vote until after the 2017 election, with a promise from all political parties that the referendum would be held within 90 days of the next election.