DNA Leader Branville McCartney calling his former Cabinet colleague a “Liar”, after the Free National Movement Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis claimed that Mr. McCartney requested 16 seats in a proposed effort of a mass opposition alliance.
“I didn’t ask for 16 seats. I don’t know where Dr. Minnis got that from,” Mr. McCartney said during a press conference yesterday afternoon at the DNA headquarters.
“The leader of the FNM wanted the DNA to dissolve with the understanding that we have three seats, let me make this clear, the DNA is not going to dissolve, the DNA is not in dissolving, the DNA is not interested in joining the FNM,” he said.
The DNA leader said they are already in a good standing position with their seating as they share in a PLP base and an FNM base indicating they do not intend on disenfranchising their base.
“We’ve had some negotiations and we’ve spoken about this before, with a number of different persons of respective parties and their position was to dissolve the DNA, and that was a no-no, and I’ve said we’re going into this election with three parties, the DNA, the FNM, and the PLP.”
Mr. McCartney instead says the FNM leader should be more concerned with the bigger issues at hand, that being the $35 million that he says was given to the FNM back in 2012 for the renewal of the dump by the Inter-American Development Bank.
“The good leader of the FNM just yesterday indicated that his party and the PLP was the reason why the dump continues to burn, and he wants to be prime minister?” Mr. McCartney asked.
“The FNM could’ve fixed the dump, but nothing happened, and we have what we had on Sunday continuing today we as the Bahamian people are paying back that loan, so I put it to the leader of that party is he willing to dig deep within his party, where did the $35 million go. Those are the issues he ought to be addressing.”
While Mr. McCartney did not give details into what the DNA may have requested in terms of seats and agreements, he made sure to note the DNA’s intention for the proposed alliance.
“I’ll tell you what the DNA wanted, at the end of the day we wanted to ensure the DNA becomes the government, to make sure we are able to enforce our policies, ensuring we have fiscal responsibilities, dealing with corruption, ensuring that the youth in this country have jobs and live a good life when they return when they finish school, at the end of the day making sure we have a much better Bahamas,” Mr. McCartney said.
The DNA leader made his response following the FNM’s ratification Tuesday evening, where Dr. Minnis claimed the DNA leader made an “unreasonable” request of 16 seats, as he also claimed the DNA has no real standing position in the race of the next general election.
“The only reason was the ego of one man, one man who couldn’t wait his turn, this one man was offended because he thought his full talents were not being utilized by our former Prime Minister.” McCartney said.
Dr. Minnis claims McCartney should have been grateful for the opportunities he’s had.
“Prime minister made him minister of state, but instead of being grateful for the opportunity to serve in that position, Bran was peeved, Bran wanted to be a full minister so he could display his enormous talents, then he wanted to be prime minister so he could display his great brilliance, mind you, all he did when he was minister of state was grand stand,” he said.
“He wanted Bamboo Town, he wanted Sea Breeze, He wanted Garden Hills, He wanted Carmichael, he wanted Golden Isles, he wanted Southern Shores, he wanted Marathon, he wanted Elizabeth, he wanted Pinewood, he wanted Fox Hill, he wanted Golden Gates, he wanted North and South Abaco, He wanted Marco City, He wanted Yamacraw, and if there was a St. Thomas Moore, he wanted St. Thomas Moore. What he did not want was Killarney, Montagu, St. Annes, and the inner city.
“He also wanted an agreement that if the DNA got the most seats then the DNA would decide who is the Prime Minister, the DNA would decide who is the deputy prime minister, the DNA would decide who’s in Cabinet, and the DNA would select the ambassadors for The Bahamas.”
The FNM ratified five candidates Tuesday evening including Brent Symonette- candidate for St. Annes; Vaughn Miller as candidate for Golden Isles constituency; Shenandoah Cartwright- candidate for St. Barnabas; Parkeisha Parker- candidate for West End and Bimini, and Dr. Minnis for the Killarney constituency.
