By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
The FNM’s deputy leader, while backing postponement of this year’s Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival, yesterday slammed a “late again” decision that has adversely impacted businesses and potential visitors.
K Peter Turnquest, the east Grand Bahama MP, said: “I said months ago that the Government ought to have considered rescheduling Carnival considering that the election was drawing near, and it should not have been considered to host a taxpayer-paid political rally in the middle of an election season. We want people to make sound and sober judgments about the future of the country, and not to be influenced by other motives.”
Mr Turnquest added: “While I agree with the delay, it’s very unfortunate that the Government is late again in terms of making that decision after people would have already made commitments and arrangements which will now cause them financial loss. This should have been done months ago.”
The postponement, Mr Turnquest said, had only given legitimacy to calls for fixed election dates, “so we could eliminate the kind of conflicts well ahead of time and everyone knows what they are doing”.
The Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC), organisers of Junkanoo Carnival, just last week announced the line-up for this year’s event, with Trinidadian singers, Machel Montano and Bunji Garlin, as headliners.
The BNFC also revealed that this year’s event had been “streamlined” after the Government slashed its subsidy by 50 per cent. The Nassau leg of the event, which was scheduled for May 4-6, has been postponed to May 18-20, with the Grand Bahama leg scrapped altogether.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID