A day leading into the Free National Movement’s (FNM) Convention, Leader Hopeful Loretta Butler-Turner again expressed disgust that the convention’s committee has in her view, neglected to efficiently prepare for the start of today’s convention.
Mrs. Butler-Turner, in an interview with The Bahama Journal, said there are missteps that should have been addressed by the committee.
“I am very disturbed that up to this date we are going into the convention tomorrow and constitutionally there have been some issues that have not been followed and for me once again I raise the concern that when you are going into an election or when your party is going into a convention it should lead the way in adhering to the constitutional guidelines and articles,” said Mrs. Butler –Turner.
“I am concerned that even today we have yet to have a copy of programme for the convention and our constitution speaks to the fact that every delegate should have a copy of the programme at least seven days in advance,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Butler-Turner yesterday assured that the Butler- Turner and Sands campaign is prepared for today’s start of the convention.
Based on she and Dr. Minnis’ simultaneous campaign launches a few weeks back, Dr. Minnis’ “Roc with Doc” slogan pulled in a noticeably larger crowd than Mrs. Butler Turner’s “Forward Together” launch.
Responding to whether she believes she has secured sufficient support from the FNM’s 400-plus delegates to pull off a win, Mrs. Butler -Turner said she is “perennially optimistic”.
“I think competition is one of the things that you in order to be able to get past any type of fear you’ve got to have a positive outlook. I know that in doing that, all one needs to do to go into a fight, you’ve got to physically prepare, emotionally prepare, and be mentally alert; and so I’ve done all of those things,” she said.
“I think the optics can sometimes be deceptive. Certainly, you don’t know the makeup of crowds, whether they actually have votes, and that’s why my launch was exactly that – a launch. It was never my intent to carry any rallies. I think the time for rallying is within the convention and then of course taking those rally troops into the wider Bahamas to make sure rally the electoral base so that we can start to move people forward in a direction to vote for the Free National Movement,” Mrs. Butler-Turner added.
In the event she emerges as leader, the former FNM Deputy says her first order of business would be to unify the party.
“I think it’s going to be the issue of making sure that the party is not fractured and that is not in a state that is vulnerable. So unification is the bi line. We’ve got to ensure that we’re unified. The confidence level that we will be able to exude will cause more people to be attracted to what we’re offering,” she said.
“People are fed up with the PLP government – their lies, their propaganda, their lack of good governance and their incompetence. So since I have consistently pointed to those shortfalls within the government, I think what the FNM needs now is something, is someone that’s going to step that up a little bit more to take the PLP on,” she added.
Meantime, in response to what life would be like if she were to not emerge as leader, she maintained that the ultimate goal of the party should be to unite for the betterment of the country.
This is Mrs Butler-Turner’s second attempt at ousting Dr. Hubert Minnis as party leader.
