Nearly a week after a Bahama Journal article revealed details of a plan by former FNM MPs to help ensure that former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham is not re-elected, the FNM struck back, accusing those former MPs of being "self-seeking pretenders."
The FNM on Sunday called Algernon Allen and Tennyson Wells "two frustrated would-be leaders", who have taken on "the impossible task of convincing the Bahamian people that [Prime Minister Perry Christie] is a better national leader than Mr. Ingraham.
"Algernon Allen and Tennyson Wells will trade on some weak and disgruntled members of the FNM by calling themselves ﾑFNMs for Christieﾒ," the statement said.
"They think that by maintaining that charade they can do more damage to the FNM. But the Bahamian people have come to know them both very well and will not be fooled by them. They are now PLPs doing the bidding of the PLP for the benefit of the PLP ﾖ and for their own benefit. They might just salvage some slim thread of respect if they just came right out and said so."
The FNM statement said Mr. Wells and Mr. Allen are so full of themselves that they have never been able to come to terms with the fact that in 2001 the FNM in convention and by a free and democratic vote rejected both of them for the post of leader.
"Mr. Allen had always entertained the delusion that people saw him as a leader. He knew, like everybody else, that they didn't want Mr. Wells, so he pursued his ambition in his usual sneaky manner while pushing Mr. Wells out front. He was shattered when he discovered that nobody wanted either of them!"
The FNM statement added, "The public also knows very well the two chief lieutenants of this dismal duo, Pierre Dupuch and Floyd Watkins. They can see straight through Mr. Dupuchﾒs personal animus and self-righteous. They also know that Mr. Watkins was such a useless MP that he couldnﾒt possibly hope to get another nomination from the party."
Messrs Allen, Wells, Dupuch and Watkins were all named in the Journal article last week as members of a movement that has come to be known as "FNMs for Christie."
The FNM statement continued that under the dynamic leadership of Hubert Ingraham and with a brilliant slate of committed candidates, the FNM once again confidently seeks the mandate of the Bahamian people.
"The new FNM government will continue the progressive and imaginative governance it delivered previously," the party said. "It will stop the PLP rot and will lead the Bahamian people to even greater heights of fulfillment."
While "FNMs for Christie" have vowed to do all they can to get Prime Minister Christie reelected, the FNM said, "Again, by sharp contrast with Mr. Ingraham, Mr. Christie has proven to be an inept, incompetent and indecisive prime minister.
"He appears paralyzed, incapable of doing anything to stop his partyﾒs slide back into its old compromised ways while the country is left to drift."
The Bahama Journal
