Earlier this week, on Tuesday, Nov. 28, National Chairman for the Progressive Liberal Party
Fred Mitchell released a statement that focused on the Free National Movement and their words
and actions following the loss in the recent West Grand Bahama and Bimini by-election. Mr.
Mitchell’s full statement was as follows:
“There is nothing that voters in a country despise more than a sore loser.  What should have
happened is after their loss, the FNM should have congratulated the leader of the PLP and our
candidate Kingsley Smith Jr. for running a winning campaign. Instead, what we have witnessed
from the FNM’s elder statesman and their current leadership is an ungracious torrent of excuses,
abusive language, unfounded allegations of wrongdoing, and insults to the intelligence of voters.
“First, the FNM’s leader claimed that the PLP got a less than decisive win. This is not supported
by the evidence. The PLP won with 57 percent of the vote and bettered its majority in the
general election. Clearly, the leadership of the FNM is delusional.
“Next, the FNM’s leadership claimed that there was money that caused them to lose. This is
laughable in the face of the fact that it was one of their own supporters caught red handed on
video with $50,000 – so he said with the ‘bag,’ and he asked voters to come see him. Clearly, the
FNM was not short of money, if money were the determining factor.
“Next came the FNM’s elder statesman. Lawyers will tell you, when you write a will, never
attempt to rule from the graveyard. That is precisely what their elder statesman was trying to do
by suggesting that voters were intimated by the PLP.  Cleary, the facts do not bear that out.
Social media was and is filled with examples of FNM rallies, FNMs going door to door
throughout West Grand Bahama and Bimini, FNM operatives screaming invective, curse words
and engaged in physical confrontations with PLPs, for allegations of intimidation to be true.
Come again, Mr. Elder Statesman.
“These are the facts: the PLP won and the FNM lost. Kingsley Smith Jr. won fair and square, and
Ricardo Grant got his pants eat off him by the PLP. There is no other way to put it.  

“The PLP ran a better campaign. They didn’t flood the place with outsiders but ran a locally
based campaign. The PLP had a better candidate. The people of West Grand Bahama and Bimini
made a logical and rational choice to vote for the best person for the job, Kingsley Smith Jr.
“When you win, you win. When you lose, you lose. That was the late Arthur Hanna’s sage
advice. Our advice to the FNM: suck it up, take your beating, and move on.”