NASSAU, Bahamas, April 26, 2024 — With the party plagued by disunity and in some instances infighting, the Central Council of the Free National Movement (FNM) last night voted to hold a one-day convention on June 1, 2024, where all offices will be vacant, The Nassau Guardian reported today in an article written by Executive Editor Candia Dames.
FNM Leader Michael Pintard told The Nassau Guardian after the meeting that this will be the final voting convention prior to the next general election and there will be no nominations from the convention floor.
Nominations for the June 1 convention will open on Monday, April 29, and close on Friday, May 3.
This means that if former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis wishes to launch a bid for the leadership — as has been widely speculated — he has just one week in which to nominate.
Pintard said it is time for unity in the party.
“We are going to have a non-voting convention to deal with a number of the other business for the party prior to the end of March of next year…but we thought this issue of the question of unity in the party needed to be settled, and we believe that one of the ways to address this is to once and for all determine which team will be leading us into the election so that the party can then galvanize behind that team and we fully expect that the team that is in place is the team that will continue.”
Pintard had previously foreshadowed a convention for late summer.
Asked why the decision was made to call the convention in June, he said there are several reasons.
“One is there is a real possibility that the government, given its challenges in its performance, challenges in finding the resources required to execute some of the important functions of government and some of the issues that are likely to arise over time, I think that there’s a real possibility that they may go early (to an election),” Pintard said.
“We need to make sure that our house is in order, and so the question of us singing from the same hymn sheet is important, and so for those that harbor in their mind the hope that they will [win] any of the positions that will become vacant, they have one more shot at seeking a mandate from the rank and file of the Free National Movement, and we wish to give them that opportunity so that they can then settle down, support the mission and support the leadership that’s in charge of the mission and message, and so those are some of the reasons why we needed to move with a sense of urgency and address those issues.”
The FNM elected Pintard leader in November 2021, just over two months after Minnis led the party to a humiliating defeat at the polls in a general election he called eight months before one was constitutionally due.
Pintard and Minnis were two of seven FNMs who were re-elected. All but one — Adrian Gibson in Long Island — won with reduced margins when compared to the 2017 election.
See complete article in The Nassau Guardian at https://www.thenassauguardian.com/news/fnm-convention-set-for-june-1/article_9fb50650-036a-11ef-b17e-ef193ae8b33c.html
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