With the Bahamas ranking number ten in the world, and number one in the Caribbean for recorded rape cases and gender based violence, Free National Movement Chairman Sidney Collie bashed the government for what he said is its failure to protect women.

In a recent statement, Mr. Collie charged that this is evident in the fact that the Christie led administration, since its time in office over the past four years, has not implemented policies to foster women’s protection.

To add to that, the chairman lamented, that the government has been ignoring the increase in sexual assaults over the last several years.

“How can this Government claim to care about women’s rights when at every turn these last four years they repeatedly failed to implement policies that would protect them from violent crimes? They constantly serve us broken promises and empty rhetoric but in reality they have been ignoring the hugely, dangerous spike in sexual assaults over these several years,” Mr. Collie said.

Mr. Collie further stated that the government’s costly “public relations stunts, false claims and empty rhetoric” have done nothing to make families safe.

“This weekend we saw once again our ever increasing murder rate go up but along with that we saw another sexual assault splashed across the front page of our newspapers,” he said.

“How can this Government say they care about women’s rights when they don’t take steps to protect their safety,” Mr. Collie added.

“The people deserve leaders that put the safety and protection of our communities above their efforts to enrich themselves,” he said.

“True rights for women start with safe, protected neighbors to live their lives free of threats of violence. The PLP is full of empty rhetoric and broken promises and will do anything to not talk about the increasing crime rates in this country,”

The chairman said it is time for real action, minus the empty rhetoric and broken promises, as he insisted the Free National Movement will stand up to protect all Bahamians.

“We won’t hide behind false government statistics telling everyone everything is all right. Every victim needs a voice and the FNM will be that for them,” he said.