FORMER MINISTER WRITES TO FNM LEADER
NASSAU, Bahamas, December 5, 2023 — As tensions continue to mount in the Free National Movement (FNM), former FNM Minister Desmond Bannister in an open letter to FNM Leader Michael Pintard yesterday urged him to call a convention, The Nassau Guardian reported in today’s issue.
Bannister wrote, “… I am respectfully urging you to call a national convention for the party at the earliest possible date.
“Any convention will be a referendum on your leadership, but all political conventions are referenda on political leadership.
“If you cannot retain that leadership post after more than two years serving in that capacity, then this is simply not your time.
“Once a convention is held and party members have been permitted to participate in free and fair leadership elections, the party leader will emerge with a national mandate on behalf of the FNM.
“Members will appreciate that they have had the opportunity to freely campaign and vote for their chosen candidates during a national convention.
“The losing candidates will be bound by the party’s mandate to coalesce with and support the elected party leadership team.
“The FNM will then have in excess of two years to earn the confidence of the Bahamian people once again, and to regain the government.
“To delay calling a convention will diminish confidence in your leadership. Party members will question your confidence in remaining party leader, as well as your ability to raise the requisite amount of funds that will be required to hold a convention and to successfully contest a general election.”
Bannister opined, “Should you win, your mandate cannot be subjected to legitimate questioning.
“Should you not win at convention, you will still be elevated in the lore of the nation, to use Lord Denning’s categorization, with ‘bold spirits’ such as Sir Cecil [Wallace-Whitfield], rather than as a ‘timorous soul’.
“The country recognizes that even though he never became prime minister, Sir Cecil’s efforts contributed mightily to our eventual victories at the polls. He may not have gotten there with us, but his contributions unquestionably helped to lead us to the promised land in 1992.
“In contrast, holding on to leadership without facing competition will weaken your leadership mandate, and your ability to win a general election will be open to question.”
Tensions within the opposition party were apparent long before the November 22 by-election with the so-called faction loyal to former leader, Dr. Hubert Minnis, pushing against a move by the party’s leadership to block Minnis from speaking at constituency associations.
The FNM’s candidate in the recent by-election, Bishop Ricardo Grant, received just 32 percent of the votes. The FNM lost ground in the constituency given that in the 2021 general election Pakesia Parker-Edgecome got 38 percent of the votes.
Some FNMs have claimed that the election loss is a direct failure of Pintard’s leadership, something he has dismissed outright.
Minnis had no involvement in the by-election campaign, though former FNM leaders Hubert Ingraham and Tommy Turnquest featured prominently at rallies.
Minnis had no comment when asked by The Nassau Guardian about his absence from the campaign.
He has repeatedly faced claims within the party that he is undermining Pintard’s leadership.
Weeks after the September 16, 2021 loss, Minnis, who was under heavy internal pressure from within the party, resigned as leader.
Pintard, one of only a handful of former FNM ministers reelected to Parliament, was elected leader of the party in November 2021.
The party held a convention in February 2022.
Under the party’s constitution, “A party convention shall be held at least once in every two years, during the month of October as Central Council shall direct with the approval of no less than two thirds of the members in attendance of the meeting, at a time and place approved by the Central Council.”
The party won just seven seats in the House of Assembly in 2021. In 2017, it had a blow out victory, winning 35 seats.
In 2021, Bannister was one of the former Minnis Cabinet ministers who lost a bid for re-election.
Bannister and Pintard had both been ministers in Cabinet.
In his letter to Pintard yesterday, Bannister stated that through the years, the FNM has provided a clear beacon of hope for The Bahamas.
“We have stood for freedom of expression in all of its manifestations when others would have done their best to intimidate our fellow citizens into silence,” he stated.
“Through many turbulent decades, the party has fought for the rights of the Bahamian people, and earned their admiration, respect and support.”
Bannister also referenced the reported attack on FNM Vice Chairman Richard Johnson outside the party’s Mackey Street headquarters during a meeting of the Central Council.
He stated, “The blatant and violent attack on one of our members outside FNM headquarters on Thursday night threatens to undo decades of progress. Our party has always condemned political violence. In our beloved Bahamas, no person, least of all an executive of the party, should be subjected to politically inspired attacks on their person.
“The recent constant discordant and hostile public airing of disagreements within the party together with litigation among party executives; allegations of unconstitutional interference in constituency associations; and the perceived failure of our party to support a sitting member of Parliament as he faces criminal prosecution before the courts have all combined to negatively impact public confidence in our ability to lead.
“The vocal public enmity among loyal party supporters clearly hamper the ability of the FNM to be considered as a serious alternative to the governing party just when they appear to be conceding the next general election to us through their blatant miscues and alleged acts of malfeasance.”
Bannister stated that the purpose of his correspondence was not to seek to pass judgment on the leader’s tenure in office.
“Rather, it is to encourage robust, passionate and peaceful debate on issues that are important to all of us and to the future of the party,” he said.
“I urge you to please consider these thoughts and suggestions, which if implemented, will in my view propel our party to having a legitimate opportunity to lead our beloved Bahamaland once again.”
Bannister copied FNM Chairman Dr. Duane Sands, Deputy Leader Shanendon Cartwright and the remaining FNM MPs.
