The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE newly announced FNM candidate for the North Abaco by-election is confident he will succeed former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham as the next MP for that constituency.

Greg Gomez was officially declared the party’s candidate on Monday night at FNM headquarters after lengthy deliberations, beating out Cay Mills, Jackson Macintosh and Perry Thomas – all of whom opposition leader Hubert Minnis described as strong potential candidates.

Mr Gomez said he is already on the ground campaigning and is ready to follow in the footsteps of Mr Ingraham, who won the seat eight consecutive times.

“I believe that I can continue to bring strong leadership to North Abaco,” he said. “My objective at this time is just to win this seat and to build on the legacy and foundation that he has laid.”

He said he “feels good” about being selected to represent the FNM in the highly-anticipated race, and denied reports of partiality, saying all the potential candidates were treated fairly.

Those reports arose after Mr Ingraham announced he wanted Mr Gomez to be “considered like the other four candidates” and delayed his retirement to facilitate Mr Gomez’ ability to run.

Mr Gomez did not meet the constitutional requirements to run for public office as he lived in the United States and did not move back to the Bahamas until August 2011.

According to the constitution, a person who is eligible to be elected to the House of Assembly must have been an ordinary resident of the Bahamas for a period of not less than one year immediately before the date of his nomination for election.

Mr Gomez said: “We went through a democratic process. Everyone had an opportunity to be selected and everyone went through the process and they ended up choosing me and I just feel good about it. I’m so happy to be able to represent my people of Abaco whom I love.

“I am grateful and very humbled for Mr Ingraham that he made a mature decision to stay on.

“That will not have any affect on my campaign. Mr Ingraham made his decision to stay and that satisfies me. I have no other issue.”

Speaking to his campaign, Mr Gomez said his team is already working to secure a win and they have been met warmly by the constituents.

“I’m on the ground now and we’re galvanising our teams so that we can disperse throughout the North Abaco constituency and so far things are looking good,” he said. “The support is very strong and we expect to win this seat.

“The people are very excited and they are eager. They see hope, they see light and they just hope we’re going to take this seat in the north.”

He said he plans to win the seat, but if he were to lose, “they will still have to deal with me in 2017”.