The Tribune

By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

OFFICIAL Opposition Senator Rodney Moncur yesterday called Democratic National Alliance Leader Branville McCartney an “ungrateful coward with no principles” as he vowed to “never leave” Official Opposition Leader Loretta Butler-Turner like the former Cabinet minister did.

Mr Moncur said he prays Mr McCartney does not win the Bamboo Town seat in the next election and hopes his “political career dies” for his betrayal.

His comments came hours after Mr McCartney resigned as leader of opposition business in the Senate – a post to which he was appointed by Mrs Butler-Turner less than three months ago.

In a surprise announcement on Thursday, Mr McCartney said Mrs Butler-Turner has sown seeds of confusion and the DNA must disassociate itself from her antics.

“I am not sure what Mr McCartney is doing. He should have resigned from the moment he became ungrateful to someone who gave him such high office,” Senator Moncur told the Tribune yesterday.

“I had an idea he was going to quit. We had a caucus on Monday and he was assigning various speakers and he wanted us to vote one way and I had to remind (Senator) Monique Gomez that Branville has abandoned us, he is like a father who abandoned his children. He is a worthless man and I hate men who blame their personal, economic and political problems on women.

“He just mismanaged his political opportunity. He had it twice, in 2012 he had a powerful political opportunity and he mismanaged it. Loretta gave him an opportunity and he has thrown her under the bus. He is ungrateful and it is my prayer he loses Bamboo Town. I always knew he was the wrong choice,” Mr Moncur, who was once a member of the DNA, said.

“Mrs Butler-Turner is one of the greatest Negro women in the county. I will never abandon her. I will never be a worthless man. I always stand by my woman. So this is a great lesson for the young female senators and other women, you better choose your man properly. These men are worthless, it is a sad day.”

Opposition Senator Monique Gomez told The Tribune she was surprised by Mr McCartney’s resignation. Mrs Butler-Turner yesterday appointed Ms Gomez to Mr McCartney’s former post.

Meanwhile Progressive Liberal Party Senator and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson said any right thinking person should be concerned about the constant bickering in the Official Opposition.

“Senator McCartney has shown his worth as a Cabinet minster and he has for the past five years led a political party. I am surprised that the leader of the opposition would have offended two leaders of a party in such a short period of time and I would say that right thinking people should be deeply concerned about the disarray in the opposition and I have heard people who have expressed concern of whether they could in fact trust their future to a non existent opposition,” Mrs Maynard-Gibson said.

Mrs Butler-Turner was appointed as leader of the Official Opposition last December after she and six other Free National Movement MPs expressed no confidence in FNM Leader Dr Hubert Minnis.

This came after Mrs Butler-Turner quit the FNM’s leadership race at the last minute ahead of the party’s convention last July. She also failed in her first bid to lead the party, losing to Dr Minnis during the party’s 2014 convention.