The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG and DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporters

FORMER Prime Minister Perry Christie disagrees with the Progressive Liberal Party’s purported restriction on who is eligible for a nomination in the upcoming by-election in the West Grand Bahama and Bimini constituency.

PLP chairman Fred Mitchell has said the candidate will come from the pool of aspirants considered before the last general election –– a group that would exclude former parliamentarian Shane Gibson.

Mr Christie avoided discussing the matter in-depth while speaking to reporters yesterday, saying he did not want to oppose his party publicly.

“In a democracy, any one of my colleagues who wants to run, I applaud them for wanting to do what they have to do,” he said when asked if he supports Mr Gibson.  “Shane is no different.”

“We’ll see what we have to see. I think the party has taken a position on the matter, or I believe they have taken a position on the matter, and it is not for me, as a former leader of the party, to enter into the public arena in any position at this moment in opposition to what the party is doing.”

Mr Christie’s comments came at the House of Assembly after he viewed the body of Obie Wilchcombe, who died unexpectedly last month.

Pressed on whether he would support Mr Gibson, Mr Christie said: “Why would you want to ask me that question when, like they say, everything is fluid? Why would you want to do that? Don’t place me in a position where I have to make that decision at this time because right now, based on what the party is saying, he is not under consideration, that the only people under consideration are persons who applied in the last election for that seat. That is the present position of the party. Now, I disagree with that position, but that is the position.”

Mr Gibson’s potential candidacy divides PLP supporters in West Grand Bahama and Bimini.

On Tuesday, residents in the constituency told The Tribune they believe their representative should be someone from the community.

 “I am not into no Shane Gibson or none of them from Nassau to talk about coming to West End and representing us,” said Philip Smith, a resident who described Mr Wilchcombe as irreplaceable.  

 “We have people in this community who can represent us.”  

 Roseylyn Rolle said she does not believe Mr Gibson would fit the community well.

 “I don’t think Shane Gibson should get the nomination because I don’t know him,” she said. “And we need someone from here who knows the people.”

 Kingsley Smith is believed to be the favourite of party elites for the nomination.

 Ms Rolle thinks another man said to be interested in the job –– young attorney Samuel Brown –– would be a good choice.

 “He from here, and I know him,” she said.