By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Free National Movement’s council agreed last night to let former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis remain leader of the party until a new leader emerges from a convention in November, party chairman Carl Culmer told reporters.

The council’s decision came during a spirited meeting in which members gave frank assessments about why the FNM suffered its worst electoral defeat in decades.

The meeting followed the FNM executive committee’s decision to recommend to council that Dr Minnis remain leader during the transition period. Dr Minnis had told committee members that he will hold on to his Killarney seat and has no plans to resign from the House of Assembly.

“We had a great meeting tonight and a lot of supporters have expressed their concerns and at the end of the meeting we agreed that the leader, the present leader, will take the party into convention and after convention we will select a new leader to take the party forward,” Mr Culmer told reporters outside Holy Trinity Anglican Church. “Dr Minnis will not offer himself for leadership. We will have an opportunity to choose another leader.”

Mr Culmer said the convention will take place no later than at the end of November.

“Dr Minnis also pledged to work with (the new) leader, whomever he may be, so that the FNM will be battle ready for the election whenever it is called,” he added.

For his part, Dr Minnis said he will help hold the PLP accountable in opposition.

He said: “I thought the government, we did an excellent job in paving the way forward for the country and preparing for a better future. Unfortunately, the public felt different and we accept that. We will regroup, look at everything, analyse as to why voters did not vote, what were the challenges and we will move forward and come out even better. Most importantly, I will be going back to parliament as the leader of the opposition with my parliamentary colleagues and we have had lots of experience both in opposition and in government and we are assured that we will be a very very vibrant, aggressive opposition and we will keep the government’s feet to the fire. They’ve made many promises and it is essential that when you make promises, you adhere to the promises.”

Although some FNM supporters wanted Dr Minnis to step down immediately, last night’s vote reflected a greater desire in the party for an orderly transition that allows the outgoing leader to be treated with dignity and respect.

Although the closed-door meeting was not particularly contentious, sources said speakers were critical of the performance of party leaders even while emphasising the need for unity. Some called for a proper post-mortem assessment on what went wrong while others complained about the quality of some of the candidates ratified for the election.

Former Bain & Grants Town MP Travis Robinson gave a particulalry fiery speech. He said: “The reality is that people on the outside of this building is depending on us as a a party, the free national movement, to get it right, to fix things.”

“The reality is that people felt that the FNM and our leadership, the prime minister, was not in tune with the Bahamian people. The felt that we said things that we should not have said, did things that we should not have done.”

Mr Robinson said the party lacked succession planning. Drawing from his own experience, he said the party needs to apply principles of the Westminster system evenly, not selectively.

The council meeting now paves the way for the leadership battle in the FNM to begin in earnest.

Although no one has publicly declared an interest in the leadership position, the current favourites are believed to be Marco City MP-elect Michael Pintard, East Grand Bahama MP-elect Kwasi Thompson and St Barnabas MP-elect Shandendon Cartwright.

Sources said last night’s meeting likely left Mr Thompson in a stronger position among council members than he was prior to the meeting while potentially weakening Mr Pintard’s standing among the officials.

Mr Pintard reportedly pushed back against St Annes MP-elect Adrian White’s report of how the caucus came to vote for Dr Minnis to enter parliament as leader of the official opposition. Mr Thompson, in turn, defended Mr White and had his views supported by other caucus members.