STATEMENT –
The Free National Movement is deeply concerned about persistent inaccurate Press Reports regarding our Special-Called Central Council Meeting last Thursday, 14th April, 2016 when Mr. Sidney Collie was elected as our new National Chairman.
It has been inaccurately reported in the media on couple occasions that in excess of 100 and as much as 150 persons who were eligible to vote last Thursday did not or might not have voted, that is plainly not so!
We want the entire record to be clear. It is true, as reported that, in total 117 Central Council Members voted. It is also true however and most importantly that, only 185 persons on Council were eligible to vote! Hence, there were much less than 150 persons who were eligible to vote but did not. In fact, there were even less than 100 persons who were eligible to vote but did not. The reality is that, only 68 persons who were eligible to vote last Thursday night did not cast a vote.
We are disappointed that a wrong impression was left with the public in that the election participation was or might have been less than a majority of the eligible voters on Council. In fact, of those persons who were eligible to vote, the participation was just over 63%.
At any given Central Council Meeting, be it a Regular Monthly or a Special-Called Meeting, it is very difficult to reasonably draw conclusions as to why more than 63% of those eligible to vote, might not have attended, especially when considering Grand Bahama and Family Island Members.
