By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

LONG Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner contended yesterday that if Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis scored another victory at the party’s convention next week, she believes the FNM would abandon her.

Mrs Butler-Turner, who is for the second time facing off against Dr Minnis for the leader position of the party, pointed to accusations that Dr Minnis will likely seek vengeance against her and five other members of Parliament who threatened to petition Governor General Dame Marguerite Pindling to have him constitutionally removed.

Mrs Butler-Turner was asked whether she was prepared to leave the FNM if she was not elected its leader during an appearance on 96.9 FM talk show “The Revolution” with host Juan McCartney.

Responding, she pointed to reports that the party had plans to replace her as its candidate in Long Island. It has been speculated several times that the party was considering controversial Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins as its next candidate for the island.

Dr Rollins visited Long Island in February and it was reported that he was seeking support from FNMs on the island. It came as photographs surfaced on social media purportedly depicting the MP visiting the home of a well-known FNM Long Islander.

“I would like to be able to say ‘yes I am going back to Long Island and bring home the seat for the FNM’ but in the back of the mind and probably will become front of my mind are the words of Dr Minnis who said if he prevails, no when he prevails, that he will deal with the six of us,” she said.

“That for me is the leader saying I have no intent of unifying us, I am going to get rid of you. That for me is going to be a further challenge to unification of our party and people need to know that.”

She continued: “…I believe the FNM under Dr Minnis is prepared to leave me and let me just underline why I say that. (It is) because of what he said and because as a sitting incumbent I have had two challengers already in my constituency that have not been rebuked.

“The first one is another sitting member of Parliament who has chosen that he is no longer running in his area but he thinks he can go to Long Island to undermine Loretta,” she said, referring to Dr Rollins.

“There has been no public rebuke of that action. It is disrespectful. It is undermining. It is divisive. It is not good for the health of our party and I have not ever said that I have no intention again of running in Long island. That is the first strike.

“The second strike during the last regatta in May of this year there were persons that were being introduced on the regatta site by Dr Minnis. One person in particular that this would be the next FNM standard bearer in Long Island and the people of Long Island have said ‘you have got to be joking.’ That person has now come out and is rebuking me everyday, maligning my good character, castigating me and saying why they think I am unfit.”

She was referring to former Cabinet Minister Tennyson Wells. Mr Wells has publicly stated his support for Dr Minnis many times and predicted that he will defeat Mrs Butler-Turner and her running mate Senator Duane Sands at the party’s convention next week.

This was only the case, Mrs Butler-Turner said because Mr Wells saw Dr Minnis as someone he is able to control.

“They have been rejected by Long Island before,” she added. “They have left the Free National Movement and now sit in a position of advisory. That person is no less a person than the opportunist Tennyson Wells who cannot get what he wants under (Prime Minister) Perry Christie and now sees a soft spot to try and get what he wants.

“Has he ever said to the Bahamian people that his biggest desire is to be able to have a casino license for some failed project he has in Coral Harbour and that is the reason why he is so gung-ho because he knows under a Loretta Butler-Turner (administration) he has no way of getting that casino license?”

When contacted by The Tribune, Mr Wells rejected this assertion yesterday, insisting that his support of Dr Minnis was not grounded in partisan bias but a sober assessment of the political landscape.

He pointed out that the project to which Mrs Butler-Turner referred was approved by the American state of Georgia, and has been underway for the past 16 months. He explained that investors received positive indications from the Christie-led government on the casino license, but ultimately took the project to America because of lingering uncertainty from investment banks over the shuttered Baha Mar project.

Last month Mr Wells said Mrs Butler-Turner and Senator Sands “don’t stand a chance” against Dr Minnis and Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest at the convention.

Mr Wells at the time was adamant that the “tactical, smooth and politically savvy” Dr Minnis and Mr Turnquest had the support of the majority of the FNM’s delegates now as they had back in 2014 when they won their respective races.