By SANCHESKA DORSETT

Tribune Staff Reporter

sdorsett@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis said he is “confident” that the FNM will be the next government of the Bahamas despite the party’s internal struggles.

Speaking with The Tribune on Tuesday, Dr Minnis said the FNM will not be “distracted” or “deterred” by sideshows and “those who do not want the best” for the Official Opposition.

Dr Minnis said the FNM is concerned with one thing: rescuing The Bahamas from “Hurricane Christie”.

Last Wednesday, the FNM appointed a three-person tribunal to decide the fate of Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner and the six other members of Parliament who ousted Dr Minnis as leader of the Official Opposition in the House of Assembly earlier this month.

The party accused the group of MPs of bringing the party into “disrepute, division, rancour and dishonour” as well as signing, delivering and causing a letter expressing no confidence in Dr Minnis to Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling to be read in Parliament.

The FNM’s council has also withdrawn Mrs Butler-Turner’s candidacy for Long Island and ratified Adrian Gibson, 32, an attorney and Tribune columnist, for the seat.

“Of course the FNM will win, I am still confident that we will be the next government of The Bahamas,” Dr Minnis said yesterday.

“We are focused and we are determined and we will move the PLP and rescue The Bahamas from Hurricane Christie and the devastation of the PLP. The people like us, they know we are focused and they believe in us. We will remain focused. Those other people are the least of our concerns. We do not get involved in sideshows. We are a serious organisation and a serious political party.”

After becoming leader of the Official Opposition, Mrs Butler-Turner appointed talk show host Rodney Moncur, along with former Senator Monique Gomez and political newcomer Jude Knowles to the opposition’s Senate bench. She has also appointed Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Branville McCartney to be the leader of opposition business in the Senate.

When asked about the Senate appointments, Dr Minnis said: “They are not FNM senators.”

“I am the leader of the FNM. I never selected them. They are not FNM senators. I am not concerned about what they are doing. I am concerned about what is happening in the country, unemployment, crime and the economy. I am not concerned about that sideshow.”

Dr Minnis once again urged Bahamians to “get out and register to vote” to rescue the country from the “inept PLP, a regime that has been responsible for bringing this country to the brink of disaster and financial ruin”.