By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday faulted Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis for not backing Edison Key’s bid to be renominated by the party in the Central and South Abaco constituency before the next general election, citing this as a key reason why seven parliamentarians were able to petition Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling to remove Dr Minnis as leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Assembly.

Mr Key has assailed Dr Minnis in recent days, calling him deceptive and unreliable. He claimed that Dr Minnis and other FNMs were going behind his back to select another representative for the area.

Yesterday Mr Key said “he has nothing to lose,” therefore deciding with six other parliamentarians to seek Dr Minnis’ ouster.

“When Mr Key made the decision that what was going on in Abaco in his constituency was unfair to him and insulting to him as a senior statesman in this country, that I think was the last straw,” Mr Miller, a member of the Progressive Liberal Party, said.

“Mr Key is a regular fella, like myself a potcake, he knows what’s going on on the ground. You either love him or you hate him. In most cases people love him. Edison Key, if he is with you, he is with you to the very end and he was with ‘Doc’ from day one when all of the senior fellas and others went against him in a vicious manner.

“He remained steadfast and gave him his full support. That to me is deserving of having total support placed with him and I told my good friend Dr Minnis just a few weeks ago that a man of the stature of Edison Key, he should decide when he wants to go. He should never be seen to be pushed out by anyone because I don’t care what it is, if he’s with you, he’s with you to the very end. Likewise, if he is against you, God help you.”

Mr Miller also blamed Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner for the move to oust Dr Minnis, although it’s unclear if Mrs Butler-Turner played a central role in the matter, despite being named by the seven MPs as the best replacement leader of the opposition in the House.

“I don’t think (Dr Minnis) ever fully appreciated the fact that as long as Loretta Butler has breath in her body, her aim is to be the leader of the FNM and if she got to go through Christ to get there, she would got through Christ,” Mr Miller said. “With that mindset, unless you prepared to do what Sir Lynden Pindling would’ve done or Hubert Ingraham would’ve done, you have to make some decisions that’s not going to be nice but that’s going to be in your best interests.

“A woman with great ambitions is almost like Cleopatra with Julius Caesar, in the end, she gon’ get ya.”

The other FNM MPs who signed the letter to Dame Marguerite were Dr Andre Rollins, Mrs Butler-Turner, Richard Lightbourn, Theo Neilly, Neko Grant and Hubert Chipman.

Mrs Butler-Turner ran against Dr Minnis for the FNM’s top post twice, at the party’s convention in 2014 and again this year.

She lost by a considerable margin in 2014 and dropped out of this year’s race hours before delegates were set to vote, citing irregularities and deception in the process.

Despite her bitter fight against Dr Minnis, she recently received the party’s ratification to run as a standard bearer again in Long Island for the upcoming election.