PLP ratifies 13 more candidates

A sea of Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) supporters flooded Faith United Missionary Baptist Church and the surrounding areas last night as the party ratified 13 additional candidates for the next general election.

Four incumbents were ratified: PLP Leader Philip Brave Davis, Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador; Chester Cooper, Exumas and Ragged Island; Glenys Hanna-Martin, Englerston; and Vaughn Miller, Golden Isles.

Nine additional candidates were ratified: Dr. Michael Darville, Tall Pines; Leroy Major, Southern Shores; Clay Sweeting, Central and South Eleuthera; Christopher Saunders, St. Anne’s; Kirk Cornish, North Abaco; Myles LaRoda, Pinewood; Pia Glover-Rolle, Golden Gates; Sylvanus Petty, North Eleuthera; and Lisa Rahming, Marathon.

The candidates were greeted by hundreds of supporters outside the church and scores more inside.

Some supporters wore masks while others did not.

Many supporters drank, chatted and joked as if it were a normal pre-pandemic PLP meeting.

Although social gatherings are currently prohibited on New Providence, PLP Chairman Fred Mitchell told The Nassau Guardian that the party was given an exemption for last night’s National General Council meeting.

“The council has about 2,000 members,” Mitchell said. 

“If a council meeting is held to deal with this, you can’t hold it at headquarters. We don’t have the capacity for it. Before all of this took place, the leader of the opposition spoke to the prime minister. The prime minister said he was doing the same process with his party and so he said it was fine for the PLP to do what we are doing.”

He said all the “necessary protocols” were followed.

Last night was the PLP’s second ratification ahead of the next general election.

So far, it has ratified 31 candidates; 18 of whom were ratified last month.

Glover-Rolle is one of five women ratified by the PLP so far.

She said it is “critical” to have women represented.

“You’ve seen the trend around the world where women are involved in leadership roles and there are lots of women involved in leadership in this country,” Glover-Rolle told The Guardian.

“Of course, I’m a leader. I have a successful track record in my professional career and now I’m adding my voice to the conversation in a political aspect. Women are known to be incubators, developers, nurturers.

“One thing I find is critical right now is [the] restoration of dignity and I think that is something, as a woman, that I have an innate ability to do and so that is what I am bringing to the table as a woman. Of course, I am going to be involved in terms of speaking on equity, equal rights for genders, protection of rights for women and girls.”

She said she also wants to restore hope to Golden Gates and The Bahamas.

“I stand on a platform of empowerment, education and enterprise: again, restoration of dignity through empowerment by creating access and opportunities for persons; education in terms of youth mentorship programs in terms of access to scholarships whether it’s academic, technical, vocational, entrepreneurial; [and] in terms of enterprise, being a business owner myself, ensuring that I provide access to the business owners to restore their businesses, to bring their businesses back to a place of sustainability, networking, access to capital and the overall picture of restoring hope to the community,” Glover-Rolle said.

‘Finish the vision’

Miller ran and won on the Free National Movement’s (FNM) ticket in the 2017 general election.

He resigned from the party in December 2019 and joined the PLP in September 2020.

Following his ratification last night, he told reporters that it is “an honor and privilege to serve particularly with the oldest political party in the history of this country”.

Miller shrugged off rumors that there was internal pushback about his ratification.

“I don’t know if there was necessarily pushback in the party,” he said.

“There [are] some challenges within the branch and the constituency and it was expected and we handled it well and we hope that it’s all hands on deck and everybody will join in. We will fight who our common foe is and that’s whoever opposes us and our hope and our expectation is that we will be victorious at the polls for the constituency and overall for the Progressive Liberal Party.”

Miller said he has won over “some” of his critics within the constituency.

He said it’s a process and he expects that “in due time we will be past that”.

Miller said he wants to “finish the vision” if re-elected.

“It’s all about empowering the people,” he said.

“People are hurting. People are challenged. People are really going through some difficult and challenging times, and so the first order of the day will be to restore our economy and restore hope in the lives of people because so many of our people have lost hope.”

Focused on the issues

Darville, who served as the minister for Grand Bahama in the last Christie administration and was the MP for Pineridge, came out as the victor after going toe-to-toe with former Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller to be the PLP’s representative for Tall Pines in the next general election.

He expressed confidence that the party will be able to take the constituency back after the FNM’s Don Saunders beat Miller in the last election.

“We are very confident that at the end of the day when the prime minister rings the bell and the election is done that Tall Pines will fall under the umbrella of the Progressive Liberal Party,” Darville said.

He said he will work “hard and diligently” to ensure that that happens for the PLP.

Darville predicted the upcoming election will be a “very difficult one”.

“I’m beginning to realize, from what I’m beginning to see on social media, [that] it’s going to be nasty,” he said.

“We, in the Progressive Liberal Party, are prepared to deal with whatever circumstances come, but as far as I’m concerned, I consider myself a mature individual in this race and I believe in being very clean with the approach that I go for.

“I believe that, at the end of the day, the Progressive Liberal Party will be successful because we will remain focused with the issues affecting the country rather than going into areas that we should not be in.”

There are seven candidates left to be ratified by the PLP, according to the party chairman.

 Mitchell said the ratification process is “almost complete”.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/plp-ratifies-13-more-candidates/