(EDITOR’S NOTE: Progressive Liberal Party Chairman Fred Mitchell today released this statement on the FNM’s excuses for losing the West Grand Bahama and Bimini bye-election that we decided to share as a Guest Commentary with readers of BAHAMAS CHRONICLE, which has a huge following among the Bahamian diaspora across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as in The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean.)
GUEST COMMENTARY: BY FRED MITCHELL
NASSAU, Bahamas, November 28, 2023 — There is nothing that voters in a country despise more than a sore loser. What should have happened is after their loss, the FNM should have congratulated the leader of the PLP and our candidate Kingsley Smith Jr. for running a winning campaign. Instead, what we have witnessed from the FNM’s elder statesman and their current leadership is an ungracious torrent of excuses, abusive language, unfounded allegations of wrongdoing, and insults to the intelligence of voters.
First, the FNM’s leader claimed that the PLP got a less than decisive win. This is not supported by the evidence. The PLP won with 57 percent of the vote and bettered its majority in the general election. Clearly, the leadership of the FNM is delusional.
Next, the FNM’s leadership claimed that there was money that caused them to lose. This is laughable in the face of the fact that it was one of their own supporters caught red handed on video with 50 thousand dollars, so he said with the “bag “, and he asked voters to come see him. Clearly, the FNM was not short of money, if money were the determining factor.
Next came the FNM’s elder statesman. Lawyers will tell you, when you write a will, never attempt to rule from the graveyard. That is precisely what their elder statesman was trying to do by suggesting that voters were intimated by the PLP. Cleary, the facts do not bear that out. Social media was and is filled with examples of FNM rallies, FNMs going door to door throughout West Grand Bahama and Bimini, FNM operatives screaming invective, curse words and engaged in physical confrontations with PLPs, for allegations of intimidation to be true. Come again, Mr. Elder Statesman.
These are the facts: the PLP won and the FNM lost. Kingsley Smith Jr. won fair and square, and Ricardo Grant got his pants beat off him by the PLP. There is no other way to put it
The PLP ran a better campaign. They didn’t flood the place with outsiders but ran a locally based campaign. The PLP had a better candidate. The people of West Grand Bahama and Bimini made a logical and rational choice to vote for the best person for the job, Kingsley Smith Jr.
When you win, you win. When you lose, you lose. That was the late Arthur Hanna’s sage advice. Our advice to the FNM: suck it up, take your beating, and move on.
