By ALISON LOWE
Tribune Staff Reporter
alowe@tribunemedia.net:
A PROMINENT lawyer elected by the FNM's local association in Pine Ridge Grand Bahama as their preferred candidate to run in the 2007 general election alleges he was told by the party's decision-makers to drop a controversial lawsuit against a foreign developer or see his political aspirations denied.
Fred Smith, QC, senior partner with law firm Callender's and Co. in Freeport, claims in an affidavit filed on December 7 that he was informed by the FNM's Candidates Committee that he would not be endorsed by them for the Pine Ridge seat -- despite having the support of the Pine Ridge Constituency Association -- unless he either pulled out of representing litigants against the Baker's Bay resort development in Guana Cay, Abaco or convinced them to drop their case.
The attorney alleges that financial concerns trumped democracy in the selection of who would run under the FNM banner in the Grand Bahama constituency in 2007, with the committee expressing concern that his continued representation in the Guana Cay case would turn off "powerful financial backers" of the FNM.
Another Grand Bahama attorney, Kwasi Thompson, was officially nominated for the Pine Ridge seat, which he went on to win for the party.
Mr Smith represented the Save Guana Cay Reef Association in a four-year-long legal battle waged against the $500 million Baker's Bay development -- a bid that was recently rejected by the Privy Council.
The Association, which included Bahamians and non-Bahamian residents of Abaco, are against the development on the grounds that locals were not adequately consulted before central government gave approval to the developers of the project, which they considered unsustainable and a threat to the local environment.
The affidavit was filed in connection with the argument over who should pay the legal costs in the unsuccessful appeal to the Privy Council launched by Mr Smith on behalf of the SGCRA seeking to have the initial ruling that gave the development the go-ahead in the face of the SGCRA's concerns overturned.
In the affidavit he stated: "My political aspirations and the wishes of the voters in the Pine Ridge Constituency Association were dashed as a result of this case."
"I was elected by the members of the (Pine Ridge Constituency) Association, prior to the last general election in 2007, to be the FNM candidate for the Pine Ridge Constituency."
"The next stage was for the FNM party candidates' committee to nominate me as the FNM party candidate for the election.
"Despite overwhelming local support I was told at one of the meetings with the committee members that unless I dropped the Guana Cay case, or unless I persuaded my clients to drop the case, I would not be chosen by the committee as the candidate for the next general election."
Mr Smith said that among the reasons give were that the candidates committee believed his "association with the case would deter powerful financial backers (who were involved in real estate, construction, etc) which the FNM party needed support from because this case was considered anti-business and development."
Meanwhile, a further concern noted was that "the country needed foreign investment and the case was seen as being against foreign investment," although Mr Smith goes on to add that his clients "were all fully for foreign investment, but at a steady, proportionate and non environmentally destructive pace in Guana Cay."
"Another issue which they considered militated against choosing me was that I would be labelled as 'Haitian'," added the attorney, whose family -- father a Bahamian and mother of Lebanese descent -- spent many years in Haiti. The father, from an old Bahamian family, established a business in Haiti and lived there for many years before returning home to his Bahamian roots.
Mr Smith said it was suggested by the committee that if he withdrew as the Association's elected potential candidate and settled the Guana Cay case to make room for another person to be chosen instead, he could "consider an offer to be appointed" as an FNM senator.
"I declined to abandon my clients. Consequently I was not selected to be the FNM party's 'Torch Bearer' in the elections," said Mr Smith.
December 15, 2009
tribune242
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