By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday warned Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis not to allow Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner “back into his bosom,” saying he is “likely to get the heck bitten out him” should she get too close to the party’s leadership.

Mr Miller suggested that Mrs Butler-Turner, who has twice unsuccessfully challenged Dr Minnis for the FNM’s leadership post, could not be trusted. 

He went on to castigate the Long Island MP and her former running mate Senator Dr Duane Sands, calling the duo “chickens” who “ran for the hills” knowing defeat was the only ending for them at the party’s national convention last week.

Mrs Butler-Turner and Dr Duane Sands last Friday, at around 2am, withdrew from the leadership race they once lobbied for prematurely before delegates went to the polls to cast ballots for all executive positions of the party.

“I think Dr Minnis’ heart is in the right place,” Mr Miller told The Tribune when he was contacted. “That is why the people and the delegates supported him. They knew Dr Minnis was genuine and I believe they didn’t get that from Butler or Sands. Bahamians know love and they felt it from Minnis.

“Them two chickened out, but what choice did they have but to run for the hills?”

He continued: “I trust that doc (Dr Minnis) won’t put her back in his bosom again. He is likely to get the heck bitten out of him if he does that again. He needs to be cautions.”

On Friday, hours after it was reported that Mrs Butler-Turner and Dr Sands had pulled out from the FNM’s leadership race, for the posts of leader and deputy leader respectively, the Long Island MP shed light on what led to this decision. 

She said FNM Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest’s public rebuke of her on Thursday night was the final straw. Mrs Butler-Turner added that she and Dr Sands believed they would never be able to resolve the problems in the party if they allowed the process to continue, hence their decision to drop out.

In an explanation to supporters on Friday in a room at the Meliá Nassau Beach Resort she said: “After seven weeks of campaigning and trying to ensure a level and fair playing field we came to the realisation that the process was in fact full of some irregularities and deep structural problems. This included, but was not limited to, irregularities with the delegate list and the election of delegates. We concluded after consultation and deep reflection, prayer and discernment that we could not go forward in good conscience with a process that proved undemocratic on a number of levels.”

At the time she did not elaborate on the irregularities with the delegate selection process and the final listing of those with voting power, but she described a series of perceived slights against herself and Dr Sands from Dr Minnis’s team that seemed to play a large role in her decision to quit the race. 

Chief among these was Mr Turnquest’s criticism of her for extending beyond her allotted 25 minutes time during her speech Thursday night. 

“I think the worst treatment was probably when we had the incumbent deputy get on stage to rebuke me for something that we had already started to discuss,” she said, referring to the time-limit for her speech. “There has never been a time when the FNM has held a convention that they have not gone beyond 11 at night and, because of the fact, we had a disruption.”

“We have the man who wants to be deputy leader of this party just talk about unification, getting up and rebuking me so publicly? Where is the unification?  That was the tipping point,” she said.

However on Monday, Mr Collie rejected Mrs Butler-Turner’s assertions saying she did not withdraw from the FNM’s leadership race because the process was “corrupt” but because she knew “the tide was against her” and she could not win.

He said while Mrs Butler-Turner put on the “best show that she could”, she knew after giving her speech on the second night of the FNM’s convention “her leadership race was over”.