By Candia Dames ~ Guardian News Editor ~ candia@nasguard.com:
The Free National Movement will seek the agreement of the Election Court for the Progressive Liberal Party to be required to put up security for costs, so that if the PLP loses the pending Elizabeth challenge, there would be money to meet its obligation to pay, FNM leader Hubert Ingraham announced yesterday at his first news conference after the hotly-contested by-election.
Ingraham stressed that the FNM fully expects the PLP to lose in court.
"The elites in the PLP seem to prefer court cases over the expressed will of the people," he said.
"It is not enough to talk about the ideals of democracy. A responsible and democratic government is charged with putting in place the measures which help to protect these ideals."
The PLP is preparing to mount an Election Court challenge after a grueling two-day recount resulted in its candidate, Ryan Pinder, receiving 1,499 votes to the 1,501 votes secured by Dr. Duane Sands, the FNM's candidate.
Pinder also got five protest votes that could still impact the outcome of the election, but Ingraham said the FNM has evidence that at least four of the people who voted on colored ballots had no entitlement to vote.
According to Ingraham, the PLP has long found it difficult to accept the will of the people expressed on election day.
"They like to go to court; but they are only satisfied when the court finds in their favor," he told the media and FNM supporters gathered at the party's headquarters on Mackey Street.
He noted that following the 2007 general election the PLP mounted a series of challenges in Election Court that proved unsuccessful.
"All were unnecessary — in Pinewood, in Marco City, and in Blue Hills," Ingraham said. "In none of those cases have the PLP paid the Election Court costs. Not one. This is par for the course.
"It is also part of an entitlement mentality by the PLP that the standards of fair play, common decency and abiding by the rules apply to everyone but themselves. In their minds the decisions of our national institutions may be circumvented or ignored if they are not in keeping with the self-interests of the PLP."
Ingraham reminded that the PLP owes ZNS $236,000.
He said had The Nassau Guardian not exposed this information recently, he would not have discussed it publicly.
"I would have sought to cajole to persuade them to pay, but now it looks like we've got to shame them to pay," Ingraham said.
This amount was incurred by the PLP over two and a half years ago at the last general election, he said.
"Ironically, the money still owed to ZNS is mostly a result of the television broadcast of rallies, which ignored longstanding broadcast rules which the PLP ignored and unilaterally broke," Ingraham charged.
"Further, despite not paying their general election bill they felt they were entitled to more time on ZNS during the Elizabeth by-election. With the extraordinary amount of funds the PLP spent in Elizabeth, they had more than enough funds to pay their other legal debts inclusive of sums owed Bahamasair. That they refused to do so is indicative of their mindset.
"Not paying their court costs and failing to pay ZNS and Bahamasair is a clear abuse of our national institutions. It sends the wrong example on many levels. The PLP are happy to take advantage of these institutions. But they refuse to abide by their decisions as and when it suits their purposes."
Ingraham claimed that the PLP had much more money than the FNM to spend during the Elizabeth by-election campaign and did so.
Ingraham also said when he became leader of the FNM in 1990, one of the early matters that he had to address was the settlement of costs for Election Court challenges mounted by the FNM following the 1987 general election.
"We raised the money and paid the $750,000 costs awarded against us by the court. We did so before the 1992 elections. We paid the monies to Nottage, Miller & Co., their legal representatives," Ingraham said.
"When the courts found in the government's favor on matters involving Sir Lynden Pindling (the now deceased former prime minister), Darrell Rolle and Philip Bethel (former PLP ministers) we, in the FNM government did not hound them to pay because we did not believe that the government should pursue people into bankruptcy."
Ingraham added, "When Sir Lynden Pindling was sued by Sir Kendal Isaacs (former FNM leader) on a matter concerning public disclosure, Sir Lynden insisted that he pay the $100,000 assessed by the courts. I never tire of saying that we are different from them; distinctly different."
He noted that in 2007 the FNM mounted a challenge against the PLP's victory in MICAL and lost.
"We paid costs of almost $225,000 to Davis & Co., the PLP's legal representatives. As a party, we take ownership and responsibility for our Election Court cases," Ingraham said.
"The PLP takes ownership and responsibility for nothing. When they lose an election case, they claim that the individual took the case to Election Court, not the party, and they pay nothing; ignore the debt.
In their world they never lose, cannot lose: The voters make mistakes, the parliamentary commissioner is inefficient, the FNM steals elections and the courts are in error."
Ingraham pointed out that in the case of the 2007 Marco City challenge, the Election Court assessed costs at $1 million.
"They have not paid a red nickel. We have not yet assessed the costs for Pinewood and Blue Hills; be assured however, we will do so," Ingraham said.
"They have a new mantra now. When they lose, they declare victory, tell their supporters that the election isn't over yet; send their operatives to all the radio stations to spill their vile mistruths and half-truths. They drag their matters on for as long as possible, hoping that somehow they will be able to reverse the decision made by the people on election day.
"They did this in 2007 and for more than a year held out to their supporters that victory was just around the corner. They did this cynically because they knew they had lost the 2007 general election fair and square. They knew they were wasting the Election Court's time when attention ought to have been given to serving the people."
Ingraham said the PLP appears now to be on the verge of "this same self-serving, delaying tactic" following the Elizabeth by-election.
"This is not the behavior of democrats," he said.
"Instead, it is the behavior of a PLP elite who manipulate our political system for their own self-aggrandizement and personal benefit. In other words, rather than serving our democratic institutions, the PLP mostly seek to have these institutions serve their personal needs and agendas."
Februray 22, 2010
thenassauguardian
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.