The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

On A ZNS Radio talk show on the day following the West Grand Bahama and Bimini by-election, several callers suggested to the Progressive Liberal Party leaning host that Free National Movement Leader Michael Pintard, in keeping with our outdated Westminster system of government, should resign his position as leader. In the wake of the devastating general election loss in 2012, former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham resigned from the House of Assembly and as leader of the FNM. Former Prime Minister Perry G Christie would resign as PLP leader following the 2017 general election loss. He had lost his Farm Road seat to the FNM’s Reece Chipman. Based on conventional wisdom, according to the aforementioned callers, Pintard should follow the example of the two erstwhile political leaders.

But I see the West Grand Bahama and Bimini by-election as a different animal from general elections. The West End constituency was established in the lead up to the historic 1967 general election by the United Bahamian Party administration of Premier Sir Roland Symonette. It was won by the PLP’s Warren J Levarity. Levarity would win again under the PLP banner the following year in 1968 in a snap general election precipitated by the untimely death of the PLP MP Uriah McPhee. Levarity, along with seven disgruntled PLP MPs would leave the governing party and form the Free-PLP, which would become the Free National Movement in 1971. Led by Sir Kendal GL Isaacs in the 1972 general election, the FNM West End incumbent would lose his seat to the PLP’s Henry J. Bowen. Between 1972 and 1997, the West End seat was held by Bowen and Moses Hall. Obie Wilchcombe represented that area from 2002 to 2017; and again from 2021 to 2023. The FNM held West End from 1997 to 2002; and again from 2017 to 2021. Of the 56 years of its existence, the PLP has held West End for 47 years. The FNM nine years. Based on this sobering fact, West End can be dubbed a dyed-in-the-wool PLP stronghold. Last week’s by-election only reconfirmed this age-old fact. And while FNM stakeholders have pledged to undertake a post mortem with the aim of finding out why the opposition lost, I believe that the answer is obvious.

The seat was the PLP’s to lose. Based on the strong ties of that community to the PLP, I am not sure what the FNM top brass would gain by removing Pintard, considering that of the eleven general elections between 1972 and 2021, the PLP has won a staggering nine to the FNM’s two. Punishing Pintard for what Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, Sir Kendal GL Isaacs, Tommy Turnquest and J Henry Boswick (as Bahamas Democratic Party head) all failed to do would be both irrational and unfair. It would be like punishing Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis for failing to win St Anne’s and Long Island. Even Ingraham, considered the greatest leader of the FNM, failed to win West End in 1992, 2007 and 2012. Resigning as FNM leader at this juncture would cause the entire organization to go into a tailspin.

Having yet to recover from the 2021 general election loss, Pintard resigning would further weaken the organisation. Other than Dr Hubert Minnis, who remains unpopular among young Bahamians aggrieved that their freedoms were infringed upon during the COVID-19 lockdowns, I don’t see a viable alternative to Pintard in the FNM Parliamentary caucus. Smith had the sheer weight of the entire PLP government backing his campaign. With the government resources at his disposal, the PLP candidate, particularly in an economically depressed West End community, was obviously the more attractive choice. Notwithstanding the confidence expressed by the FNM campaign machinery, it was a tall task to win West Grand Bahama and Bimini. Again, I don’t see what meaningful purpose it would serve the opposition if Pintard resigns.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahama

November 28, 2023.