The Tribune

By Tyler McKenzie

THE PLP convention – held on Thursday and Friday of last week – was fascinating, not least of all for the contrast between talk of the party being one and the evident fractures beneath.

The top headline of course is Fred Mitchell winning the chairman role again despite two challenges – one from Shane Gibson, who dropped out before the vote, and the other from Robyn Lynes.

Mr Mitchell got 845 votes, while Lynes got 630. A victory, certainly. Before the vote, Mr Mitchell said he expected 50 percent, plus one “and I think it’s gonna be much more than that, but I don’t want to get over-confident with this stuff”. He got his 50 percent, and a few more. Not a landslide, but enough.

After his victory, however, Mr Mitchell sounded far from content.

He said of the result: “In personal terms, it’s an affirmation of my humanity, given the nastiness of the campaign and all of the salaciousness that went along with it.”

He then thanked Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis for his support with Mr Davis having thrown his backing to Mr Mitchell and telling the media that Ms Lynes did not have his support. Mr Mitchell said: “It was that prejudice that was exhibited that caused him to make the public statement that he did.”

If there were bitter comments, they certainly were not to be found in the public statements of Robin Lynes. The former deputy chair of the party repeatedly talked about respect, saying that “dissent and differing opinions are not divisive when made respectfully”.

She said of the party, “we are one”, and insisting her bid was not “anti-leadership”.

But there were whispers in that too of bitterness in the background, with even the question being asked whether she needed a bodyguard, to which she replied that she was “not a damsel in distress”.

So it was interesting to listen to who made public declarations of support for one candidate or the other – Mr Gibson throwing his support to Ms Lynes, while Keith Bell backed Mr Mitchell – and more pointedly who declined to announce who they were backing.

Dame Marguerite Pindling – who very publicly blasted Mr Mitchell back in January for using a Majority Rule Day event at her husband’s grave as a “stepping stone” – was pictured at the side of Robyn Lynes.

Watching the ebb and flow around each camp, who would stop and pose, who would avoid, was fascinating.

Quite what the jabs were that led to Mr Mitchell being such an aggrieved victor, we may never know, but he moved on to talking about his plan.

He said that first the party can tackle the by-election “which we should have been doing – and not distracted by this”. The convention date was set before the passing of Obie Wilchcombe, of course.

Something of the bitterness has crept in because of the failed attempt by Mr Gibson to secure the nomination for the West Grand Bahama and Bimini seat – in the face of opposition from Mr Mitchell. No love was lost in the sparring between the two, with Mr Gibson particularly stinging in talking about not having a ministry where he could just fly around and smoke cigars.

For Mr Mitchell, he talked of the need to get younger people into the organisation “that can build on the stable platform that we have now”. It sounds slightly incongruous for the 70-year-old who has just beaten the 40-year-old to talk of the need for youth, but that has been a call he has made several times now.

Most intriguing is the prospect that we may have to go through all of this again just a year from now.

Mr Mitchell said after his victory that the Prime Minister “has indicated publicly a year but I don’t think that is a fixed notion because these things (conventions) are expensive to put on”.

He said to change might require a special convention according to the terms of the PLP constitution – and went on to say that it would be up to Mr Davis as “the chairman is an agent of the leader”.

He talked of his planned tour around the country as “a long goodbye for me”, and prior to the vote there was talk of this being his “penultimate” campaign. He clarified that he would indeed have another campaign at the next election for the Fox Hill seat – putting him in office until his late 70s should he win. He said he did not imagine there would be another run for party office.

That puts the PLP, having just kept the team together as Mr Mitchell urged, looking at all change in perhaps just a year’s time, to put the chairmanship in someone else’s hands for the run-in to the next election, with Mr Mitchell simply racing rather than managing the stable.

If a challenge against the incumbent of a party presently in government stirred up this much apparent bitterness, goodness knows what the next fight for party chairman will look like.

The number of votes won by Ms Lynes, and the apparent divisions brought up in the fight for the by-election nomination, are warning bells for the PLP. If there has indeed been bitterness in the fight for the chairman seat – as indicated by Mr Mitchell’s comments in victory and Ms Lynes on the eve of the vote saying there had been “an assigned attack on my character and motives” – then those bells should be ringing loudly.

All of this without even talking about some of the hot button topics that could cause division too – such as marital rape, marijuana legislation and even a topic Mr Mitchell has spoken about it being difficult for him to get support over, the prospect of becoming a republic.

After the dust has settled on the personal fight, it will be interesting to see what has emerged from the policy fight – and which of those topics will make it to the agenda for the latter half of this administration’s term in office.