The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party incumbents have been guaranteed nominations in the 2022 general election, a move that blocks a daughter of Sir Lynden Pindling from challenging South Andros MP Picewell Forbes for the party’s nomination in his constituency.

For months, Monique Pindling has been testing the waters in South Andros and weighing a run.

However, PLP chairman Fred Mitchell, during a press conference yesterday, said the party has formally decided to renominate Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP Philip “Brave” Davis, Exuma and Ragged Island MP Chester Cooper, Englerston MP Glenys Hanna Martin and Mr Forbes. He said this is because “they are the ones who withstood the tsunami in 2017.”

Multiple people in South Andros have told The Tribune Ms Pindling has expressed serious interest in vying for the seat.

One community leader said former Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling called him to assess interest in her daughter’s possible run. 

Ms Pindling, whose father represented the constituency for many years, declined to comment yesterday. On Monday a flyer bearing her image was circulated and caused rumbles in the party. It announced a meet and greet event on Andros featuring her with the caption: “Let’s talk about the future of South Andros.”

Yesterday, Mr Forbes welcomed the PLP’s decision to renominate all incumbents. He said after seeing Ms Pindling’s flyer, many people reached out to him.

“They expressed their concern, especially over this one person who has had this angst to be on the ticket in Andros,” he said. “Some of my former colleagues in Parliament called me and said ‘this can’t be happening, we need to put a stop to this,’ and lo and behold today I went to the press conference and the chairman at the outset made it known that the incumbents will not be contested.” 

Mr Forbes said he is perplexed why anyone would want to challenge him, considering his loyalty to the party and the fact that he won his seat in the last election.

“. . .The leader is there, the deputy leader is there and the member for Englerston is there. Nobody who is known in the body politic of the party is upping to go against them so I think that’s what created quite a bit of a stir for those who know me as simply the hometown boy, one who has been there through the thick and thin and when offerings were made to me I stuck to the process, took the blows and been through the vicissitudes of it all.” 

Mr Forbes said he expects a Cabinet post if he is re-elected and the PLP forms the next government, insisting only then could he help his constituents as much as he wants.

“I believe I could be better assessed if I could be given that one opportunity to serve at the ultimate level, which would be the Cabinet level where I could better deliver the basics my people have been asking for,” he said. “The pie is only so big and it is very difficult when you’re not in Cabinet. You have to be almost servile, asking ministers for assistance and going back over repeatedly with them, whereas those who sit at the table have more access than you as a backbencher. Sometimes it can be almost frustrating and it feels almost humiliating being a backbencher because you have to send letters to the ministers and their permanent secretaries and some get personal, according to the tone of the letter and the kind of day they are having.”

Mr Forbes insisted he has earned the confidence of South Andros residents by being a “straight shooter,” not by “making promises” he can’t keep.

He is eying several landmark achievements for his constituency, he said, including redoing the administrator’s complex, improving docking facilities and providing greater education opportunities to reduce brain drain on the island.