Dear BP,
With your permission, am asking you to post my views on the FNM’s reaction to the bye election victory on Tuesday on the main blog page.
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On Tuesday March 23, the election courts handed down a ruling that most political analysts were expecting; a ruling in favor of Ryan Pinder. What wasn’t expected was the ruling to allow all 5 of the votes to be counted as valid. The decision to allow all 5 ballots was the silver lining that the Prime Minister needed to deflect from the real issues at the heart of his party’s loss in the bye election.
Mr Ingraham called a press conference to temper the FNM’s loss yesterday but strangely he didn’t blame Dr Sands or the way his campaign was ran. He didn’t blame the apathetic voter in Elizabeth who didn’t show up. He didn’t even blame the Parliamentary Commissioner or his department for their blatant errors. No, Mr Ingraham implied that the judges made an error in their ruling. That’s right. It was the judges fault. The judges screwed the FNM out of their win.
Once the talking points were established, many FNM’s seems to have clung to this notion that they should have won were it not for the judges bad ruling. But what they don’t seem to acknowledge is that even if that vote was thrown out, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Ryan Pinder still would have won.
What you see HAI and the FNM doing now is called SPINNING. Mr Ingraham wants assure and persuade his base that the only way he could loose is if some unforeseen force intervenes. So the bye election was won by the FNM until the courts got involved.
Why are they spinning? They are spinning because the outcome wasn’t what they had anticipated nor planned for. Had all things gone according to plan, Dr Sands was suppose to win by at least 300 votes. The ensuing aftermath was suppose to be a rabid media ripping of Perry Christie, followed by the continuous questioning of his leadership accompanied with stories about divisions in the PLP from their “unnamed sources” for the next few months, right into the general election.
The bias media would be doing its best to create the perception that Mr Christie has lost his appeal because under his leadership he lost in 2007 and the bye election in Elizabeth. That’s the drum beat the Tribune, Guardian, Ortland Bodie, Jeff Lloyd and Wendell Jones would be beating too until a general election is called. You see, had all things go according to plan, the FNM was suppose to be going into the general election with its main rival, the PLP, having a wounded leader and a divided party. Meanwhile no one would have been paying attention to the woes of the country and bad governance of Hubert Ingraham and the FNM.
My fellow readers, make no mistake, the planning of this bye election was meticulously done. With a bye election coming on the heels of an intentional 2 year fixation by the Trubune on the PLP’s leadership, coupled with Malcolm Adderley’s resignation, this bye election seemed like a brilliant move by Mr Ingraham.
Look at the amount of effort the FNM put into Elizabeth. The PM, every cabinet minister, FNM operatives, BEC, BATELCO, and the Ministry of Works basically lived in Lizzy for almost 4 weeks. Considering the effort put in by the FNM government, it speaks to how desperately wanted this seat. They wanted to win badly and win big.
But something went wrong. In the FNM’s miscalculation, they didn’t calculate the mood of the country and the Elizabeth voter. For whatever reason, Mr Ingraham and the FNM assumed Lizzy would just pick Dr Sands and forget about the bad economy, high unemployment, the crime rate, traffic congestion, etc. To this day I would like to know what Mr Ingraham saw on the ground in that constituency that lead him to believe that he and Dr Sands would win by 300 votes?
So all this talk about the judges allowance of that one voter with no voters card is pure rubbish and pure spin. I mean how can you explain losing a bye election when your party just won the government 2 and 1/2 years ago, your party controls all government apparatus and the public purse? You cant explain that. Someone has to take the fall. Who is the fall guy? Well we know who ISN’T taking the fall. That’s right. Your friendly neighborhood Prime Minister. He couldn’t get off that plane fast enough yesterday to blame those judges, lol.
But i submit that Mr Ingraham lost more than just a potential seat in Parliament. He out schemed himself and in the process, suddenly Hubert Alexander Ingraham doesn’t look so invincible. Suddenly it looks like Branville was on to something when he decided to resign from cabinet. Suddenly the PLP gains confidence that they can beat him. Suddenly the mastermind doesnt look so smart. When an unexpected loss like this happens not only does HAI looks vulnerable to his opponents, but those in his own party who are aiming for his leadership seat smell blood.
Yes, the beast has been wounded!
So why the extravagant plan by the FNM? Simple. They know they are in trouble. They sense the mood of the electorate is turning against them but what they didn’t have was a firm grasp on how entrenched the mood was until the bye election. Like the referendum of 2000, the bye election was the gauge Mr Ingraham used to take the temperature of the country. He didn’t like the referendum results then and he doesn’t like the bye election results now. In 2000 he blamed the people, saying he was ashamed. After the 2012 bye election loss, he implied the judges were wrong. Are you getting the picture? So what did he do after the referendum in 2000? He bailed on the FNM. I ask you readers, what do you think Mr Ingraham is about to do later this year or early next year? LOL!
This bye election was unnecessary. It would have been better for the FNM had Mr Adderley just cross the floor and finished his term. With Mr Adderley shilling for the FNM, that would have been a constant reminder of his deflection from the PLP. But since his resignation, has anyone seen or heard from Mr Adderley? Papa probably have him wrap in some aluminum foil, deep in his bag. In his mean spirited ways, Mr Ingraham couldn’t resist the opportunity to kick Perry Christie one more time. So he schemed, took the risk, went all in and lost.
Yes Mr Ingraham, in 2001 you saw the blood bath that was awaiting your party in the 2002 general election and you jumped ship. Fast forward to 2010 and you sure as hell see the big tsunami gaining steam and headed your way. If I were an FNM council member, I wouldn’t let you bail this time like you did in 2001. No sir. I would make you take the helm of the sinking FNM ship right into the next general election because your presence, or the lack thereof, will be the determining factor as to whether or not the FNM gets rejected or decimated at the polls.
FNM’s wake up! Your leader is about to go all Houdini on yall and disappear on more time. Like the saying goes, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Thank you Bahamas Press
Altec
I concur Altec….well said. I believe HAI knows his time is coming to an end. His legacy and ‘tested leadership’ are dissolving fast. I am enjoying every single minute of it!!! IT AIN’T LONG NOW!!!!
Altec, you always represent well! Mr. Ingraham believes that he is invincible.
Mr. Prime Minister, what happened in Elizabeth , is a microcosym of what is happening all over the country.
Very well said Altec.
Those whom the Gods wish to destroy he first makes mad.Papa is so pyrrie right now that in the coming days we will see many appointments made that dont make any sense.In order to save face PAPA should call a General Election right now so he can gauge the mood of the people.Notice that on the day the ruling came down PAPA was out of town and his goons were home under their beds.lol lol lolo.It reminded me of the nigyht of the Referendum defeat when everyone fled FNM HQs realising that the locksmith(the people of the Bahamas) had started to change the locks on their power dejavue.
Altec, I couldn’t put it any better myself as a blogger on this site since day one I have come full circle to many points that Altec have posted here .This Ingram Government from its winning the last election has made many disastrous decisions that have had a negative effect on our country , from the stop and review to the road work project that have actually same to hit a road block , to the port deal and the destruction of Saunders Beach to the unconscionable borrowing by a government gone mad , this Government is now being looked at as one that is drunk on power , dismissive of its people and incompetent to handling of the modern Bahamas……..Hubert Ingram has been behaving lately like a tired , run down spoil baby that has lost its way and is about to crawl back to its mother for its bottle .In short , This government has lost its way it has betrayed the Bahamian people and has left in its wake a disaster that is equivalent to a tsunami.
Well written Epilog altec; I couldn’t have said it better than you have. Ingraham isn’t under any elusion; he understands the Judges ruling; the judges, he knows very well, are not stupid and a layman like me could understand the decision they made in respect of voter “F” then am sure even a bush lawyer like Ingraham could. The mistake, the court said, was made by the presiding officer. When the voter was allowed to vote, the court said, its jurisdiction, in the limited circumstances of the case, was invoked. We should not lose site of the fact that the election court was convened only to consider the validity of the five protest votes and whether under 69 (4) of the act, the voters were eligiable to vote in Elizabeth. What constitutes eligiability as far as the court is concerned? whether they were Bahamian citizens over the age of 18 years and whether their address where they were ordinarily resident, was situated within the constituency and the period of time they were domiciled at the address; nothing more. The judges made it very clear that it was not for them to decide whether voter “F” should have been allowed to vote in the first place, not having a voters card and her name not appearing on the register, that decision they said was the presiding officer’s. They went further-the judges did-and opined that the presiding officer must have known what he/she was doing he/she allowed the voter to vote. I never expected voter “F” to be allowed either but after reading the ruling, I fully understand why. The parliamentary registration department has a lot of responsibility, which apparently they don’t even realize.I heard Carl Bethel with his snag remarks, as well. He said something to the effect that “well we won it on the ground but they won it in the court” what an ass he is. Altec, you are so right they(FNM) are sore losers and that’s the short and long of it. Lizzy is indicative of the mood of the country; wait and see. The Bahamian people want change.
“On Tuesday March 23, the election courts handed down a ruling that most political analysts were expecting; a ruling in favor of Ryan Pinder. What wasn’t expected was the ruling to allow all 5 of the votes to be counted as valid. The decision to allow all 5 ballots was the silver lining that the Prime Minister needed to deflect from the real issues at the heart of his party’s loss in the bye election.” To bring it down a nudge for some incompetent people who are SO BIAS and wont put right where right is. YES ryan would’ve ultimately won BY ONE VOTE and Not by 3.
Brilliant Altec, I agree with you on all points, but if you check my past blogs, you would see that I have written the same points a long time ago, the FNM and the Registry lawyers were incompetent, they did not ask the right questions, they were schooled by Brave, right now Tommy T needs to resign, but for some reason HAI can’t do it, there is something here for journalist to investigate, if they had the balls to, Errol Bethel needs to resign and to be jailed for tampering, HAI needs to man up and make these things happen, HAI needed this win so he could walk away, retire and leave the party to Brent or Tommy, they needed to hurt the PLP so one of those clowns had a chance to win, but with this lost, the backers ain’t gonna allow him to walk away, HAI is wounded, he is now losing on all fronts , this is how Sir Lynden felt in the end, but at least he redeemed himself in the end, Hubert needs to take a note out of Sir Lynden’s playbook and try to fix his public image, and hope that someone loves him in the end, HAI people are afraid of him, Sir Lynden’s people loved him and still love him to this day, will HAI find that kind of love in the end or will he be despised.
Showing off got you there this the time. It looks good seeing that grin off your face.
This is the beginning of the end of Napoleon. When you use the number 10, get a new bag from Jamaica and ain’t learn that the earthquake didn’t help ya. This is what happens when you think you in the clouds unaware you hitting the ground and getting bust right up. That calls for a drink at Hawkins Hill near Immigration the usual hangout.
Brilliant!!!!
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