The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Free National Movement knows what it must do to be re-elected to office, former prime minister Hubert Ingraham has said, adding he was confident the party would regain public confidence.

However, Mr Ingraham said both the FNM and Progressive Liberal Party must realise that neither organisation has sufficient supporters to guarantee elections.

He said the reality was that politics was fickle and supporters become disenchanted quickly.

“The FNM is a party that’s in movement,” Mr Ingraham said as a guest on Guardian Talk Radio’s Z Live: Off the record with Zhivargo Laing on Friday.

He was asked to comment on the party under the leadership of former prime minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

“People move in and out. For instance some of those 49 candidates we had in 1992, 11 are deceased, some of the others have decided to pitch their tents elsewhere.

“Many of the persons who voted against us in 2002 came back in 2007 and some of those who went against us in 2012 came back in 2017.

“What both major political parties have to come to terms with and their supporters come to terms with is that neither party has sufficient supporters to guarantee their election victory.

“Both parties need to attract persons from the other side to them and so the FNM’s job is to not only get back FNMs who didn’t come back, but also to encourage and persuade disgruntled PLPs to vote for them.”

He continued: “One of the things about politics is as soon as you win the election you start to lose supporters the next week because more and more people start to get disappointed by what you promised and didn’t do. They become disenchanted and they become pickings for the next side.

“So, the reality is if you are 100 today, well you’ll come down and so that other side has to make it attractive for those disenchanted persons to come and support the other side.

“The FNM is made up of this large number of persons who were originally PLPs. The FNM was formed by original PLPs. Its leader Sir Cecil Wallace Whitfield was the chairman of the PLP, Orville Turnquest was a secretary general in the early days of the PLP. I myself was a former chairman of the PLP.

“All of the dissident eight were PLPs. So, the reality is that people are moved one way or the other.”

“In the PLP now there are known FNMs,” Mr Ingraham continued. “In the FNM government that Minnis had there were known PLPs who came over.

“Unfortunately for The Bahamas I think we don’t have a sufficient number of people who come into public life who are significantly grounded and firm in their beliefs. So, they will go over to the side that they think is going to win.

“That’s the reality.”

Mr Ingraham said that while there were good reasons why the FNM was voted out of office, he was of the view that the party would correct the issues.

“I expect that the FNM will do all the necessary things to regain public confidence,” he said. “There are good reasons why the public decided to vote against the FNM last election.

“The FNM knows what they are and so they must take steps to not repeat them and to demonstrate to the public that they are sincere and that they will not repeat those things that the public found offensive.”