NDP Critiques PLP Convention

In a press statement sent over the weekend, the NDP said rather than be an exercise in true democracy, the PLP’s convention was an exercise in how to undermine democracy.

"Had the PLP and its prime convention organizer, Obie Wilchcombe, been sincerely interested in fostering the continued development of our democracy, they would have treated the convention’s electoral process with far greater respect," the party said.

"They would have ensured that all registered members of the PLP in good standing were eligible to vote, not just a minority of its membership. They would have provided all candidates with a list of the convention delegates well in advance of the election in order to create an even playing field. They would have created opportunities in advance of the convention for public debates on national issues between the candidates vying for the posts of leader, deputy leader and chairman.

"They would have forced all candidates to publicly disclose the amount spent in their election campaigns and the sources of their funding and they would have denied all voters the ability to take photographic devices into the voting booth as a means of receiving payment for votes by proving the way in which delegates voted."

But the NDP said none of this was done. The relatively new party added that they see no point in PLPs always "crying" about the unfairness of the PLPs electoral process and the need for campaign finance reform, if they wont do anything to change it themselves.

They added that, ironically, PLP Leader, Perry Christie, permitted Mr. Wilchcombe to serve as convention chairman, leaving him responsible for deciding who spoke at the convention, a move they said was a clear conflict of interest that undermined any honest attempt at promoting fairness and democracy at their party’s convention.

"Despite allowing this mockery of the democratic process, Mr. Christie, in his usual empty rhetoric, spoke before the convention and said that the PLP ‘can take pride in having helped advance the democratic process for which the PLP has been the national pacesetter for more than half a century’," the release said.

"He went on to apologize for the mistakes that he made while prime minister and said that if given another chance, his mission will be to look after those who honestly feel that he has not ‘done right by them’ and who feel that he could have ‘done more for them’, by putting them at the ‘head of the line.’ Specifically what mistakes is Mr. Christie owning up to or apologizing for? How can the Bahamian people know what he is sorry for if he isn’t bold enough to state what he believes his mistakes were?"

What Mr. Christie should have apologized for, the NDP said, were the many economic failures and lost job opportunities the country faces.

Failures like "not creating legislation to keep some of the billions of dollars in bank profits that have been earned on the backs of The Bahamian people here in our own country to assist with the capitalization and development of Bahamian small businesses, instead of allowing all those billions to be repatriated to countries like Barbados and Canada" and "being late in acting on matters such as the Bahamar Development and National Health Insurance, instead of laying the blame at the feet of others."

The party said the transformational politics the country need requires a new way of thinking. It said such thinking is rooted in the hearts and minds of a new age of politicians – transformational politicians – who are passionate about the development of The Bahamas for all Bahamians.