The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE


Tribune Chief Reporter


lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement chairman Dr Duane Sands said the party will move to remove former leader Dr Hubert Minnis as a member in due course, but declined to say when, insisting the party has “far more important things” to focus on during the election campaign.

Dr Minnis formally entered the Killarney race as an independent last week, setting up a contest against the FNM’s Michela Barnett-Ellis, the Progressive Liberal Party’s Robyn Lynes and the Coalition of Independents’ Dr Veronica McIver.

Under a constitutional amendment ratified by the party on February 25, 2022, his decision to run against an official FNM candidate means he is deemed to have resigned from the party.

Dr Sands said the process to formalise that outcome would happen, but not immediately.

“There’s a process and that process will take place when it takes place but we have far more important things than to worry about than Dr Minnis,” he said. “Dr Minnis is going to be defeated in Killarney and we have no interest in giving him any oxygen because this is all attention seeking behaviour.”

Dr Minnis, who led the FNM to a landslide victory in 2017 before the party’s crushing defeat in 2021, would become the first leader to be removed from the organisation he once led.

Despite the pending removal, Dr Sands said the party would not erase his legacy.

“The historical reality of Dr Hubert Minnis as the prime minister and leader of the Free National Movement doesn’t change,” he said. “We don’t tend to rewrite history.”

Dr Minnis has been critical of the party since breaking ranks, alleging that it launched a smear campaign against him and his wife and restricted his participation in party events.

“I have had a bond with Killarney for more than 20 years, even though the FNM abandoned me, I never abandoned Killarney,” he said at his campaign launch earlier this month. “I would not abandon the great and loyal people of this wonderful constituency Killarney.”