When political parties win by large majorities the people in the party tend to become ‘giddy,’ according to former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham as he weighed in on the Free National Movement’s (FNM) landslide victory.

During Rotary Club of South East Nassau’s meeting at East Villa on Wednesday, the former prime minister admonished the Minnis led administration to stay focused and not let the win go to their heads.

“Political parties when they win elections, especially if they win with huge margins, tend to get giddy it goes to their heads,” Mr. Ingraham said.

He also pointed to the fact that each one should not think that they won on their own merit, but because of other contributing factors.

“Everybody wants to be a big shot. Everybody thinks he won the election because of himself,” Mr. Ingraham said.

“The truth is they didn’t win because of themselves, they won because of the party.

“They won because the government got voted out.  That’s why they won.

“Not because the individual was such a good candidate and the people say I love him, I’d vote for him.”

Mr. Ingraham further noted that although the FNM won the majority of the seats, in most cases, no party wish to have that many seats because of the difficulties that may arise to manage a majority.

“It is difficult to manage huge majorities and if political parties had a choice to make, they wouldn’t want a huge majority,” he said.

Further, in supporting his statement, Mr. Ingraham explained his take on the FNM’s loss in 2002.

“I think one of the contributing factors that the FNM lost in 2002 was it had won a huge majority in 1997, but ended up with arguments of who would become the next prime minister,” he said.

“It wasn’t a question of whether or not we would lose the next election.

“It was a big fight over that, the public got fed up and say to hell with all of ya’ll.”

In admonishing the present administration, Mr. Ingraham said if he could give any advice to them it would be to be alert, humble and focused.

“I think if I had one word to say to the FNM administration, it would be that they be on their guard to ensure that the public accepts that they will remain humble,” Mr. Ingraham said.

“They have to seek to do the things that they said they will do and do as many of those things as they can do and to be focused.

“Not to seek to provide a job for everybody that got elected.  The public gets tired of that too.”

Weighing in on the general elections since the FNM became the government, Mr. Ingraham said many factors contribute to governments being ousted after just five years.

“In 1992, when we won the election for the first time, they voted against the PLP.

“In 2002, they voted against the FNM. In 2007, they voted against the PLP.

“In 2012, they voted against the FNM, specifically Hubert Ingraham, I suppose,” Mr. Ingraham laughed.

“Populations sometimes after they voted are happy with what they decided, sometimes they have remorse immediately.

“I think that is part of the fact that I am accepted by society a lot means that there was a lot of remorse for firing me,” he laughed.

The FNM won the 2017 general elections capturing 39 seats with the PLP holding on to five seats with only one in the capital.