By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

STATE Minister for Legal Affairs Damian Gomez said due to Tropical Storm Erika, which is expected to hit his constituency on the weekend, he will likely file his proposed Election Court petitions to declare the Long Island and Killarney seats vacant by next week Friday.

This statement came after his shock announcement on Sunday that he planned to file the respective prospective petitions this week.

Asked to respond to criticism that he has embarked on a witch-hunt for members of the FNM rather than pursue more important issues, including bribe allegations related to the Bahamas Electricity Corporation dating back to 1999, Mr Gomez said both issues were “totally different” in nature.

He said this proposed legal battle, which was a personal decision and is being carried out by his attorneys, had nothing to do with the Christie administration or the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

However, the Central and South Eleuthera MP told The Tribune yesterday that he was still gathering information on new allegations against Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner and Killarney MP Dr Hubert Minnis to be included with the mounting evidence he plans to present.

He suggested that other officials are on his radar and said he was also looking into allegations made against a member of his own party, which he believed were false.

“Right now my main concern is how my constituency will be affected by Tropical Storm Erika and to ensure we are ready for her when she comes,” Mr Gomez said.

“Any action that will happen on my part will most likely come after the storm has passed. So if I had to estimate, I would say we will be ready by next Friday.

“In the meantime, I am drafting and getting more information from more people about other allegations and perusing those as well to be included when I take action.”

Since revealing his plans to file the petitions, Mr Gomez has been the subject of criticism that he was playing politics by targeting the opposition, while turning a blind eye to his fellow party MPs. However, he denied this yesterday.

“I had heard a rumour about one of my colleagues which I will check out this week. But I am satisfied that it was only a rumour and is false. What I have uncovered is that the company that is the source of the allegations was sold and the person in question no longer has a stake in that entity. So what has been swirling around is based on old information.

“Contrary to what people are saying, I am applying the same principle to all of my colleagues,” he said.

He declined to name this colleague.

On Monday, Mrs Butler-Turner said she would sue Mr Gomez for criminal defamation of character after he revealed intentions to file the petitions over an alleged violation of the Constitution’s conflict of interest rules.

The Long Island MP has denied that she has any shares in any company which has a contract with the government. She has called Mr Gomez’s statements “false and defamatory”.

The agreements in question are the Stat Care contract signed between a company which Dr Minnis has interests in and the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) in 2005, before he entered politics. The arrangement was continued while Dr Minnis served as health minister from 2007 to 2012 and continues on a month-to-month basis.

Dr Minnis has said the allegation of a conflict of interest is a non-issue because he disclosed the matter after he was elected. He has also said that while he was minister of health he ordered the PHA to move its facility, however the agency has not yet done so.

The alleged conflict with Mrs Butler-Turner reportedly centres on a government department renting space from the Milo B Butler and Sons building.

In taking this course of action, Mr Gomez has said that he does not understand why the Long Island MP would take a defensive tone because his bid to remove her and the FNM leader from the House of Assembly was not to prove that they were guilty of “skullduggery” but to show that they are in contravention of Article 49 of the Constitution.

That clause states that if a member of Parliament does not get approval from the House of Assembly or the Senate through a resolution to have a contract with the government, his/her seat should be declared vacated by the Election Court.

Mr Gomez has said he resorted to this action following a private meeting with Dr Minnis advising him to bring resolutions to the House of Assembly seeking approval for the contracts to continue.