S.S. PLP off the reef
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Leader Philip Brave Davis yesterday likened his party’s devastating 2017 defeat at the polls to a ship running aground.
He furthered the party has been repaired and is “sailing to the port of victory” as he announced plans for a campaign launch rally on February 10.
Speaking to PLPs at the party’s headquarters on Farrington Road, Davis said: “I can assure you, as you well know, the S.S. PLP, our ship, on May 20, 2017, it went aground causing severe damage to its hull.
“I can assure you the S.S. PLP is off that reef.
“I can assure you that the hull has been prepared.
“I can assure you that the S.S. PLP is now seaworthy and we are on the way, sailing to the port of victory.”
In February 2019, PLP Deputy Leader Chester Cooper said the road to the election “begins now”.
The Free National Movement (FNM) won seven of the 10 Family Island seats.
Overall, the FNM secured 35 of 39 seats.
An post-election assessment report of the PLP’s loss, noted that the party was unattractive to young Bahamians; it failed to reach undecided voters; ignored its base and the party’s traditional base had shrunk.
The report, titled “The ground has shifted. Finding new ground’ was completed by Jamaican social development practitioner Maureen Webber.
The report also noted the FNM ran a more “clinical” campaign, which started almost as soon as the party lost the 2012 election.
Last month, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis launched his reelection bid, telling FNM’s the FNM “victory train will not stop until 2022 when we disembark to be sworn in at Government House.”
Minis has repeatedly espoused a second term in office.
During the 2020 New Year’s Junkanoo Parade, the prime minister told reporters he has “seven more years” to bring campaign finance legislation, a promise he made in opposition in 2017.
“I got seven more years,” Minnis said, when prompted on the issue.
