The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip ‘Brave’ Davis urged West Grand Bahama and Bimini supporters to support Kingsley Smith, the Progressive Liberal Party member hoping to succeed Obie Wilchcombe in the constituency.

Mr Smith’s campaign was officially launched in Holmes Rock on Thursday.

“We need you to line up behind the one,” Mr Davis said, saying the party has “done our part.”

“You may be disappointed because you did not get what you wished, but you have who the party wants right now, and so let us all be the PLPs that we are supposed to be,” he said.

Mr Davis said all the potential candidates to represent the party were qualified, but only one could be chosen.

“There is a lot of future for West Enders,” he said, adding: “I thank Robert Grant, Samuel Brown, Paco Deal, and Caleb Outten.”

Kingsley Smith, Jr, 51, is an attorney. He recently resigned as chief passport officer to run for office.

Some PLP supporters have not embraced him because of his previous ties to the Free National Movement.

“I was born out of the belly of the PLP,” Mr Smith told The Tribune on Thursday, adding that his father was a stalwart councillor and his mother was a party member.

He said his uncles on his mother’s side went with Hubert Ingraham when he left the PLP and joined the FNM.

He said he supported the FNM in 1992, his first time voting.

“Throughout the years,” he said, “I would have supported the FNM. However, as time went by, my heart was always and still with the PLP and its philosophies.”

Mr Davis likened Mr Smtih to the prodigal son during his speech. Mr Smith said it was Mr Davis who had asked him to rejoin the party in 2020.

He said he would be meeting with constituents to hear their concerns and share his plans for the constituency with them.

“I was born and raised in West Grand Bahama, and I know the issues, but people have their individual concerns,” he said.

“Some of the candidates who are in the race are not from the West Grand Bahama community.”