In a blowout victory, Philip “Brave” Davis last night was elected to lead the Progressive Liberal Party by a three to one margin over his opponent Glenys Hanna-Martin. Mr. Davis, the Member of Parliament for Cat Island and San Salvador, succeeds Perry G. Christie as leader.
Mr. Christie resigned the leadership of the party following the defeat of his government in the May 10th general elections. Since then, Mr. Davis, the former Deputy Prime Minister became the leader of the official opposition in the House of Assembly and interim leader of the PLP.
Some 1700 delegates in the 53rd annual Convention of the PLP gave Mr. Davis 1004 votes against 300 for Ms. Hanna-Martin and 3 votes for Troy Garvey.
Elected Deputy leader was I. Chester Cooper, MP for Exuma and Ragged Island. He defeated Ricardo Smith.
The new Chairman of the Party is former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell. He polled 627 votes against 419 for Obie Wilchcombe and 216 for Glendon Rolle. The Deputy Chairman of the Party is Robyn Lynes who defeated Doctor Erecia Hepburn 792 to 436.
The new leadership team headed by Mr. Davis now affords the PLP the opportunity to reposition the party after its crushing defeat at the polls some five months ago.
Mr. Davis, 66, first elected a member of parliament for his current constituency in 1992.
In his first official address as PLP Leader, Mr. Davis spoke about bringing the idea of change to a reality and the first step is a reform of the party’s constitution.
“Our party’s original platform called for social and political freedom, and pledged to be a party that “dedicated itself to the service of all Bahamians, not a privileged few.
“Freedom, Justice, Equality, just to name our party’s guiding principles is to feel the moral urgency of working to make them real in today’s times.
“But to earn the right to stand on the shoulders of our original warriors – we have the honour of fighting for those principles in today’s Bahamas ; we need a strong, united, reformed, battle-ready Progressive Liberal Party.
“Here’s how we will begin. We’re going to reform the PLP’s Constitution, so that our internal rules ensure our party is inclusive, transparent, modern and accountable,” Mr. Davis said.
In the wake of several 3 former PLP MPs being subject to arrest for corruption related offences, Mr. Davis made it clear that the party would not stand for corruption, but also hit out at the present government for making claims with a lack of evidence.
“I want to say something in particular about the accusations of corruption. Let us be as clear as we can be. We must have zero tolerance in this party for corruption.
“Private gain at the expense of public progress is a terrible kind of sin. Corruption tears at the fabric of our social compact. Where it exists, it must be punished.
“But let me say this, too: false accusations of corruption are surely another kind of sin. They increase cynicism about public life just when we need to encourage participation.
“So those who scorch reputations and families to score cheap and temporary political points, you are hurting our country and neither your neighbours nor history will look upon you kindly,” Mr. Davis said.
He added that bringing younger voices toward the forefront of the party is also extremely crucial moving forward.
“And here’s the thing: we will have dialogues — not monologues. There is strength in humility, and there is a lot to be learned by truly listening.
“We will re-establish island and regional councils, so that we can be more responsive to Bahamians across the country.
“How do you inspire young Bahamians to get involved in changing their country? By making sure we once again have a PLP where their voices really matter.
“We will constantly work – and this is joyous work, this is the best reason to be in public life – to recruit and mentor new talent,” The new PLP Leader said.
