Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham’s resignation as a Member of Parliament for the North Abaco constituency comes into effect today.

Two weeks after announcing that he would step down as leader of the Free National Movement (FNM), after the party suffered a devastating loss in the 2012 General Election, Mr. Ingraham announced that he would also step down as MP.

Mr. Ingraham served as MP for the North Abaco constituency for 35 years. He was never defeated.

During the general election, the FNM only captured nine seats. The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won 29 seats.

Initially, Mr. Ingraham’s resignation was scheduled to take effect on July 19, the day he was first elected to Parliament.

However, that was postponed as Mr. Ingraham said he wanted to give his party more time to select a candidate for the bye-election.

Mr. Ingraham, did however, tender his resignation to House Speaker Dr. Kendal Major, who according to Mr. Ingraham, had agreed to allow him to deliver his farewell speech, but that never happened.

The incident caused a war of words to erupt inside and outside the House of Assembly as FNM supporters and MPs alleged that Mr. Ingraham was being denied the right to speak to his now former constituents.

Mr. Ingraham stormed out of Parliament, vowing never to return.

The FNM has since put forth Greg Gomez as the candidate for the bye-election.

The PLP will again run Renardo Curry and the Bahamas Constitution Party’s Ali McIntosh will also run in that race.

According to sources, the government will set a date for the bye-election in early September.