The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

DEMOCRATIC National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney yesterday said fear was spreading through the Progressive Liberal Party like wildfire as he forecast the possibility of a coalition between his party and the Free National Movement becoming “more and more real”.

Mr McCartney said the prospect has prompted the PLP to enlist “weapons of mass propaganda” and challenged that criticisms from party chairman Bradley Roberts, who said such a union would not succeed at the polls in 2017.

He called on the government to focus on critical national issues instead of using its executives and operatives to wage a “petty political war”.

“Bradley Roberts’ comments betray the fear which the PLP is now experiencing at the mere thought of losing the 2017 general election,” he said.

“That said, it was unsurprising to see the party’s blustering chairman offer his comments on the idea. What is surprising, however, is the fact that a man well known for his absolutely outdated and myopic views is still allowed to weigh in on matters of national importance on behalf of the party.”

The DNA leader called Mr Roberts a political dinosaur, whose efforts to present the PLP administration as a caring government have failed. He pointed to last week’s Tribune’s poll, in which 83 per cent of participants expressed support for a coalition government.

Mr McCartney pointed to several coalitions throughout Bahamian political history.

“Bradley Roberts should remember that a coalition was had in 1987 when the FNM did not run anyone against Hubert Ingraham, Perry Christie and A D Hanna,” he said.

“Those gentlemen won their seats handsomely. Had the FNM run persons against Ingraham and Christie, these good gentlemen would have been a distant memory and never held the highest office in the country!

“In 2002, the PLP did not run anyone against Pierre Dupuch, Tennyson Wells and Larry Cartwright, all of whom won their seats. Let me remind the chairman that his now party, the PLP, won governance in 1967 with the coalition of Sir Randol Fawkes and Sir Alvin Braynen!”

Mr McCartney asserted that Mr Roberts did not want to remember successful coalitions because he was a member of the United Bahamian Party (UBP) at the time.

“Rather than using its executives and operatives to wage petty political war,” he continued, “I can only hope that the fear they now experience inspires the government to finally commit itself to addressing the needs of the people.

“That means focusing on issues such as our dangerously high debt-to-GDP ratio, and our equally high crime rate. That means focusing on job creation, career and entrepreneurial opportunities for young Bahamians. This means fixing the economy and rooting out corruption,” he added.