Gray defends BAMSI contract for former PLP minister
AGRICULTURE and Marine Resources Minister V Alfred Gray has defended the Christie administration’s decision to award a former PLP Cabinet minister a construction contract at BAMSI, saying the government will do as much as it can for the people who supported them.
PM declines to provide details of equality referendum plans
PRIME Minister Perry Christie was noncommittal yesterday about the proposed constitutional referendum on gender equality, providing no specifics on when a vote on key legislation concerning the matter will be taken in Parliament.
Butler-Turner angry at snub
LONG Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner has rebuked FNM Chairman Michael Pintard over accusations that he and other party executives were planning to hold an executive meeting in her constituency on Friday without consulting her, which she said is in contravention of the FNM’s protocols.
FNM to press over Ruffin’s unpaid taxes
FREE National Movement Deputy Leader Peter Turnquest said the opposition will press Prime Minister Perry Christie in Parliament about billionaire investor Philip Ruffin’s failure to pay millions of dollars in owed casino taxes.
Tax no foundation for a ‘progressive’ govt
FORMER Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister George Smith said the Christie administration cannot claim to be the country’s most “progressive” government if it is pinning this accomplishment on value added tax and the introduction of National Health Insurance.
Minnis calls for more aggressive policing
FREE National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis said yesterday he saw “nothing substantive” in Commissioner Ellison Greenslade’s policing plan for 2016 and warned that if officers “do not get more aggressive” the crime problem will never change.
‘No surprise’ at NHI delay talk
A LEADING surgeon yesterday criticised the Christie administration after an official suggested that a delay in the primary care phase of National Health Insurance is a possibility, saying it “speaks to a level of administrative incompetence that we have not seen in the history of a sovereign Bahamas”.
‘Where are the tougher measures on crime?’
FREE National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard has blasted the Christie administration for its “dereliction of duty” after the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s 2016 policing plan failed to reveal tougher crime fighting measures.
FNM rejects ‘racist’ claim
FREE National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard yesterday denounced former Cabinet member Tennyson Wells for calling Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn “racist”.
‘PLP just as fractured as the FNM’
WHILE the Free National Movement has struggled to keep its internal turmoil out of public view, FNM supporter Tennyson Wells says the Progressive Liberal Party is equally fractured.
Pintard calls for clarity over loan for senior official
FREE National Movement Chairman Michael Pintard yesterday insisted that Prime Minister Perry Christie and Works Minister Philip “Brave” Davis clarify the circumstance surrounding claims that a former senior government official was granted a substantial loan from the Bahamas Development Bank.
No word on who is acting PM as Christie leaves country
PRIME Minister Perry Christie left the country on Tuesday afternoon to attend a series of private discussions in Geneva, Switzerland with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) officials, The Tribune was told. He is expected to return on Sunday.
‘Time to stop using the race card in politics’
FORMER Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette yesterday spoke out against remarks made by Tennyson Wells, blasting the former parliamentarian and Cabinet minister for using political tactics that should be “relegated to history books”.
PLP chairman says ‘deep-seated division’ in FNM is clear
PLP Chairman Bradley Roberts said it is evident there is “deep-seated division” within the Free National Movement after Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn revealed he had been called “racist” at a party meeting because of his criticism of proposed tax breaks for Over-the-Hill communities.
FNM Deputy: New Carnival, but same mistakes as last year
FNM DEPUTY Leader Peter Turnquest yesterday said it seems the government and the Bahamas National Festival Commission “have not learned anything” from the failure of last year’s Junkanoo Carnival and are “back to making the same mistakes.”
