The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

DEMOCRATIC National Alliance leader Branville McCartney said yesterday there is “no possibility” of a coalition between the DNA and the Free National Movement despite calls for the two parties to join forces to defeat the current government.

At a press conference at the DNA’s headquarters on Thursday, Mr McCartney said FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis is living in “la la land” if he thinks the DNA needs the FNM to defeat the PLP. He also accused Dr Minnis of cleansing the FNM of “everything Hubert Ingraham”.

On Wednesday, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham suggested the FNM find a way to make a deal with the DNA ahead of the next election.

“It seems to me to make sense to present the public with a united front, the public does not like divided parties,” Mr Ingraham told The Tribune.

“In fact they like to punish parties when they are divided and the extent to which the FNM can get itself together, put us in a position to be able to talk to the DNA, and if they are not talking any sense, the FNM has the opportunity now to take its Senate seat back from Mr (Branville) McCartney and proceed and tell the public why they can’t do a deal with them and why the public ought to focus its attention on voting for the FNM as an alternative to the PLP.”

Mr McCartney said the DNA was once open to a coalition between the two parties but that ship has now sailed.

“A couple nights ago, the present leader of the FNM Dr Minnis said we are not a factor. As a matter of fact, the leader of the FNM said this election is between the PLP and the FNM,” Mr McCartney said.

“I do not think it is a possibility for us to join up. I understand where Mr Ingraham is coming from and I am sure he has a lot of insight but whether the FNM takes any advice from him is questionable, especially in the light of the fact that the present leader of the FNM said ‘the Ingraham era is over.’ That could have been one of the worst things he ever said. He took it a step further and has gutted the FNM of any semblance of the former administration. I don’t know if that was a wise move on his part.”

Mr McCartney said if Dr Minnis were a smart man, he would heed the advice of Mr Ingraham and learn from the former FNM leader’s experience.

“He had a great resource there,” Mr McCartney said. “The fact is Mr Ingraham was prime minister of this country and the reality is, he did a good job and that means he has a lot of knowledge and he has political wisdom and Dr Minnis should have reached out to him and learned from him,” Mr McCartney said.

“I have said it before certainly you cannot take away the fact that the former prime minister has the experience. He is talking from insight I can imagine and based on the comments made by Dr Minnis, where he has completely discounted Mr Ingraham and his advice, I don’t see the DNA and the FNM happening.”

Last year, after rumours of a coalition between the two parties began to surface, Mr McCartney told The Tribune the FNM is a “broke and sinking ship” and a union between the two groups would help the FNM but hurt the third party.

“We are done with that,” Mr McCartney said at the time. “The FNM is in the worst state that they have ever been in their political history. They seem to be losing people everyday; there is still a lot of infighting. One person is saying one thing and another person is saying the next thing. The FNM seems to be very wanting, their role as an opposition party has been dismal at best.”

Dr Minnis in turn said last year that he was “open” to forming a coalition with the DNA, but said he was “turned off” by Mr McCartney’s arrogance.

In December 2016, Dr Minnis was stripped of his post as leader of the Official Opposition in the House after seven FNM MPs wrote a letter of no confidence in him to Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling.

Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner, who replaced Dr Minnis, later appointed Mr McCartney as leader of opposition business in the Senate.