By DANA SMITH

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

DNA chairman Mark Humes said it is difficult to determine if his party contributed to the FNM's defeat, but said the election result was a "referendum" on the FNM's leader.

He agreed the DNA made an impact on the election, earning around 10,000 votes, but said "nobody can really say" if those votes cost the FNM seats.

"I think the people who voted for us didn't want to vote for the FNM, they didn't want to vote for the PLP. So nobody could say where they came from and how many voted and 'what if?' It would difficult for me to say that it contributed to the demise of the FNM," Mr Humes said.

"People may want to make assumptions but I think the people that we touched came from urban areas as well - that were strongly PLP. I know all the support I got was not all FNM support. So I can't say that it did and I can't say that it did not. Everybody is going to believe what they want to believe, but I can't say."

He said the FNM's loss was the result of Bahamians having had enough of former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham's leadership style.

"What you saw was a complete referendum against Ingraham," he said. "It may not be a vote of confidence in the PLP, per say, but it was definitely a vote of non-confidence in Ingraham.

"People were frustrated with that type of leadership. It may not have been Ingraham personally, but it was Ingraham's style that people voted against."

Mr Humes said he had a "mixed reaction" to Mr Ingraham declining his winning seat and retiring from politics.

"The people of North Abaco elected him to represent them and he should have stayed to do that.

"If he was a leader he would have stayed for one more term," Mr Humes said.

"We accept that he's tired and if he wants to retire and spend time with his family, then we accept that and we say we wish him well in his retirement."

Reacting to the PLP's win, the party chairman declared: "This is the same old era from 2002.

"The only person that's gone from the PLP right now is Vincent Peet. Other than that, it is the same thing. Like Mr McCartney was saying: 'We're going back.'

"We're hoping that Mr Christie learned the lesson and we just wait and see. But this is not a new era... A new era would have been the FNM and the PLP without Mr Christie and without Mr Ingraham.

"We can't call this a new era when you still have Mr Christie, when you still have 'Brave' Davis, you still have Bernard Nottage - even behind the scenes you still have the same old characters."