By DANA SMITH

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

PLP leader Perry Christie claimed Hubert Ingraham is “the worst prime minister” the country has ever had.

Speaking to a sea of supporters clad in yellow at a rally in Clifford Park on Friday, Mr Christie declared: “We can’t take another five years like the last five years we’ve had.”

Citing crime, cost overruns, unemployment, and the rising national debt, he said it is time for Mr Ingraham “to pay the price for his unbelievable failures”.

Mr Christie said the Prime Minister and National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest have been “fast asleep at the wheel” for the past five years in the war against crime.

“And yet, nearly 500 murders later, after a thousand families have been ripped apart, after an entire nation has been traumatised by crime, this same man still has the nerve to say that he delivers,” he said.

The FNM has caused “the biggest and most scandalous cost overrun in Bahamian history” by signing contracts worth millions of dollars with Bahamas Hot-Mix and their foreign partners, Mr Christie claimed.

“You and your children and your children’s children will be paying all that money back for generations to come,” he said.˙

The FNM has also given the Bahamas record unemployment, record levels of national debt and “record economic losses”, he said.

“Are you better off now than you were five years ago?” Mr Christie asked the crowd.

“And what about your sons and daughters? What has Ingraham done for them? Where are the jobs for them and for you?

“Where are the new economic opportunities for them and for you?

“There are none. T˙hirty-three out of every 100 young Bahamians are now out of the work.

“Imagine what that means for the kids who are graduating from high school and college and who graduated last year and the year before that.”

On election day, Mr Christie said, the PLP are “going to put our country on a new path to peace and prosperity.

“We cannot waste one more second. Our future starts now.”

PLP deputy leader Philip “Brave” Davis also spoke at the rally. He said the PLP will immediately create 10,000 new jobs for young Bahamians.

He also told the crowd the PLP will launch the Swift Justice Programme, School Policing, Witness Protection, Urban Renewal, and a National Health Insurance Plan if elected.

“We in the PLP believe in protecting Bahamians,” Mr Davis said.

“We believe in keeping playgrounds and classrooms safe for children. We believe in strengthening communities and making them safe havens for families. We in the PLP believe in you.”