RIVALS SAY THEY DO NOT FEAR RISK OF LOSING TO DNA
By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
THE PROGRESSIVE Liberal Party and Free National Movement candidates for Bamboo Town said they are not concerned about the possibility of losing to incumbent, Branville McCartney.
When asked what they thought their chances were in Bamboo Town, Renward Wells, the PLP candidate, and Cassius Stuart, the FNM candidate, both said DNA leader Mr McCartney has no chance of retaining his seat.
Mr Wells said: "I don't think its going to be a close race at all. In fact, I am going to win by more than 50 per cent of the vote. Mr McCartney will be pleasantly surprised.
"I know Bamboo Town has been FNM since 1987 but that was because of Tennyson Wells. Mr Wells convinced them that FNM was the better party and now I will convince them that PLP is the way to go.
"Cassius Stuart is my biggest competition, we are both cut from the same cloth. Mr McCartney will be easy to beat."
Mr Stuart agreed that Mr McCartney is no competition and said he won't even get one per cent of the vote.
"Everyone who stood with Mr McCartney now stands with me. He has some support but it is nothing significant," he said.
"The people are tired of persons being elected on the FNM ticket then abandoning them for their own personal interests.
"They always knew Mr McCartney had an ulterior motive because he painted his constituency office green and not red.
"I am going to knock Bran out. The only running he'll be doing is out of Bamboo Town."
The comments from both men came after Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said Bamboo Town is a "test case" to see which one of the men will emerge as the winner.
He said: "I have taken two gentlemen who wanted to be leaders and put them up as candidates.
"There is another member there, in the person of the Member of Parliament for Bamboo Town, who wants to be a leader."
He added: "We have asked them to fight in their league down there to see which one of them is eligible to be leader. You have to win first."
For his part, Mr McCartney said the fact that the three men, two of whom were at one point leaders of third parties, are running in the same constituency is no coincidence.
He said: "The whole thing is a ploy for Mr Ingraham and Mr Christie to get Renward Wells and Cassius Stuart out of the way to stop them from joining forces.
"They planned this whole thing from the beginning to put us against each other."
The prime minister has indicated that he will not cut the boundaries of Bamboo Town - even if the Boundaries Commission recommends it.
October 12, 2011
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