Has Minnis delivered?

It’s been four years since Prime Minister Hubert Minnis made a litany of promises during the 2017 campaign. Now, with another election on the horizon, Minnis is requesting a second term. Among the measures proposed in the party’s manifesto were term limits for prime ministers, reduction of government debt, a recall system for non-performing MPs, and greater accountability.

The two-term limit for prime ministers turned out to be a recycled FNM lie. Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham made the same pledge in 1992. And, like Minnis, he claimed that he would make good on his promise if given a second term. Ingraham got his second term—and still didn’t deliver. It’s likely Minnis will do the same.

Minnis painted a bleak picture of the economy while on the campaign trail and promised more stringent fiscal practices to tackle government debt. Instead, the FNMs have been spending like drunken sailors on shore leave and have amassed billions of dollars in debt, resulting in multiple downgrades by international rating agencies.

Minnis also promised to give voters the power to trigger a by-election with the ability to recall non-performing MPs.

If Minnis had come through on this campaign promise, he and his band of liars would have been shown the door soon after their landslide victory.

By promising that it would be the “people’s time” under a Minnis-led FNM government, he promised greater accountability to the populace.

What we got was a despot, who answers to no one and insults the press. From his merciless use of emergency powers over the past year to eliminate the middle-class and small businesses, to his failure to explain how a Cabinet Minister could build a multimillion-dollar home after four years in office although she had little means as a candidate.

Since Minnis hasn’t made good on a promise to implement unexplained wealth orders for parliamentarians, we’ll never know how Lanisha Rolle went from pauper to princess.

By his failure to keep his promises, Minnis can’t run a re-election campaign on trust. No one trusts a known liar.