By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party deputy leader Chester Cooper has issued a warning to former Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller, telling him the PLP’s leadership team “will not be bullied”.

The Exuma and Ragged Island MP made the remark to The Tribune yesterday about Mr Miller’s insistence on secuiring the PLP’s nomination in 2022.

Mr Miller has said he is running in Tall Pines no matter what, even if it means do so as an independent candidate. He said he supported Obie Wilchcombe in last week’s PLP chairmanship race because he believed the former tourism minister would better look out for candidates like himself who lost in the last election and want to run again.

“We will not be bullied,” Mr Cooper said in response.

“There is a process for candidate selection and vetting. Anyone interested in a PLP candidacy should acquaint themselves with it. Our party is fresh off a successful convention and is in a period of renewal. We will do what we must to regain the trust, confidence and vote of the Bahamian people and we will not be distracted. Our process allows us to field credible candidates representative of the demographics of our country.”

PLP officials want to run mostly new candidates in 2022, a desire that may collide with the ambitions of past candidates.

Last year Mr Cooper said he would prefer to see fresh candidates run in the next election. PLP Leader Philip “Brave” Davis also this week that he expects a “slate of new candidates.”