By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party internal polls show seventy percent of Bahamians are dissatisfied with the Minnis administration, PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell said yesterday.

He did not give The Tribune the poll findings.

“The polls give us an edge right now given the level of dissatisfaction,” Mr Mitchell said, “but the number of undecided is in our view too substantial. So it tells us we have a lot of work to do on this undecided group.

He continued: “Given the 70 percent disapproval rate of the government, it means that people are looking, they’ve decided they need an alternative and this is why we are trying to concentrate on building the party infrastructure to present a good face to the country.

“We’ve used polls in the past but Mr Davis himself is a great believer in polls and empirical data and I believe we rely on it much more than we used to.”

Mr Mitchell also reacted to recent changes to the PLP’s constitution at the party’s two-day convention, including its move to increase the number of delegates that could participate.

Asked if the changes were as progressive as he hoped, he praised the expanded powers and responsibilities of party branches but admitted he wanted even more PLPs to participate in electing top officials.

“When I was on the campaign after the 2017 loss, my own view is I hoped and I recommended to the committee that there be an election for leader, deputy leader and chairman from the entire membership of the party, from north to south across the whole country, not delegates to the convention,” he said.

“The constitutional committee did not go that far.”

Nonetheless, Mr Mitchell said the changes are designed to now accommodate double the number of people that previously elected party leaders.

“It’s a greater reflection of what’s actually felt by the country and that’s a good thing, greater democracy, more people involved and with technology it may even be possible in the future for there to be remote connections to a central convention.”