Christie: Party will decide if I stay as leader

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

AS SPECULATION mounts over who could emerge as the next leader of the Progressive Liberal Party, Prime Minister Perry Christie said he is in the process of mulling over who will succeed him as party leader.

However, he added that the ultimate decision on whether he remains leader of the PLP lies with his party.

“I am trying my best to look and see who will take my place,” Mr Christie briefly remarked yesterday morning during a speech to hundreds of children who gathered for the opening of the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s summer youth camp.

And while he gave no clear indication on his future, Mr Christie, during an interview that aired on ZNS last night, said he still has the “energy and the ability to continue with new ideas.”

“Everyone is saying that this is the time when I have to indicate what I want to do,” Mr Christie told ZNS last night.

He added: “We have a deep bench and the one thing that I am satisfied with is that there are any number of persons with the capacity to replace me and continue effectively in the governance of our country.”

“At the end of the day the decision will be one made by the PLP family and one made by me. I would only want to stay there period, full stop, if it was with the full support of colleagues because I am a part of them and that means I am a part of their future as well. “We don’t have to be acrimonious and adversarial in this, we have to be very calm and considered and take into consideration the best interests of the people of the country.”

Of those questioning his future, he said: “Whether they like me or they don’t like me, if they think I should go, if they think I should stay, tell them that decision will be made and it will be made collectively by the Progressive Liberal Party, functioning as the party that it is today and I have no doubt whatsoever that the decision will be the right decision.”

This comes as Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe have both publicly stated they are ready to lead the party, if a vacancy becomes available.

Both men have said their actions will depend on if Mr Christie offers himself for re-election.

Party insiders have also named Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell and Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald as possible contenders for the PLP’s leadership.

While in opposition, Mr Christie indicated that he would consider stepping down as party leader mid-term and name a successor. However, he later said he intended to serve a full term if elected as prime minister in 2012.

In January, during a televised interview with State of Affairs, Mr Christie, 71, said it would take a “compelling, tangible” reason for him to lead his party into the next general election.

Comments

afficianado says...

Perry, you are washed up and lame brained. Your ideas are "stale" .Creativity occurs between the ages of 20-35 yrs not 20 and 100 yrs of age.

Posted 30 June 2015, 1:38 p.m. Suggest removal

TalRussell says...

PM are you going allow a bankrupt Baha Mar "Nation" to keep the land deeds for da 20 acres of exotic and inspiring Bahamaland's beaches, they are now in possession of?

Posted 30 June 2015, 1:57 p.m. Suggest removal

duppyVAT says...

Perry needs to admit his failure .......... resign as PM............ prorogue the House ...........and call an election for September ............. and let the next generation take over and lead us out of this PLP/FNM mess ........................ we are the "Greece" of the Western Hemisphere today

Posted 30 June 2015, 2:14 p.m. Suggest removal

GrassRoot says...

Bootlickers say and do what the boss tells them to do. The fact that he does not say NO now, means he will run.

Posted 30 June 2015, 2:25 p.m. Suggest removal

proudloudandfnm says...

The funny thing is the PLP don't give a hoot that this guy is an absolute failure. Those morons will run him in 2017.... GUARANTEED. PLP don't give a crap about the country. They just want to win the championship game every 5 years.....

Posted 30 June 2015, 2:27 p.m. Suggest removal

asiseeit says...

The PLP will look out for the PLP as ALWAYS, to hell with the nation. Perry is good for the PLP and their tin pot dictator style of governance. The inner circle is reaping the loot and it is trickling down to the minions, all is well, within the PLP and that is all they care about.

Posted 30 June 2015, 2:47 p.m. Suggest removal

TalRussell says...

Comrades time for a new Prime Minister who will make it his/her first task that of forcing an action to "quiet title back" to ownership of taxpayers of da 20 acres prime exotic beaches and all other lands signed over Baha Mar and associated hotels and properties,

Posted 30 June 2015, 3:04 p.m. Suggest removal

PKMShack says...

perry please leave, please man for the nation need no more of you and your old staffers called mp's now good bye

Posted 30 June 2015, 4:08 p.m. Suggest removal

TalRussell says...

Comrades, where in hell was da more youthful great dictator in Papa, when’s da nation most need they dictator?
Comrades had only da "Fisherman from Cooper’s Town," turned red shirts PM Hubert, highlighted da proposed Baha Mar "Nation’s" 3.5 billion project on his shortlist of to be “cancelled and burned” PLP contracts, he might not have had to flee into political exile back up to Cooper's Town. 'Twas his golden opportunity to prove himself, the real dictator, lots we thoughts he really was.
Wasn't like Papa didn't confess before da nation to seeing all the red flags warning him Baha Ma "Nation" just didn't make no economic tourism sense, not back then, not today in bankruptcy 2015.
Did PM Christie just seal Papa's hopes of never being PM ever again? Funny how things worked out that each PM would end up bringing down da other former law partner.

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2015…

Posted 30 June 2015, 4:19 p.m. Suggest removal

banker says...

Ahh there is your Papa-Love again! The cogent issues are the bumbling, corrupt Perry Christie and you always talk about Papa as if he were in Rawson Square instead of on his boat, drinkin' rum an' coke, puttin' bird pepper on his boil fish n' grits, shootin' da crap wid his son Zhivargo and trolling under the Bimini top in the Islands in the Stream.

Posted 30 June 2015, 5:08 p.m. Suggest removal

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