Former Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis has encouraged his loyal supporters to boycott a town hall meeting that Free National Movement Leader Michael Pintard will attend in the Killarney constituency in a few days.
Minnis is hoping for a poor turnout at the meeting to support his claim that Pintard is incapable of uniting the fractured opposition party.
The two men remain at odds despite a recent meeting engineered by former FNM leaders to bring an end to party infighting.
Minnis, who has won the Killarney seat in four consecutive elections, has told his inner circle he does not want Pintard in his constituency talking to FNM supporters.
He continues to undermine his successor despite stating publicly that there is no bad blood between the two. It is no secret Minnis visited Grand Bahama and other islands canvassing FNM supporters on the ground to determine if he could launch another successful bid for the party’s leadership in a few years.
However, that won’t happen if key players in the FNM get their way. New party chairman Dr. Duane Sands is determined to keep Minnis on the outside of the leadership circle after Minnis pressured him to resign as minister of health at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two men have never seen eye to eye and Minnis was waiting for any excuse to kick Sands out of his cabinet.
Sands felt Minnis lacked the intelligence and political maturity needed to become a great leader while Minnis never cared for Sands’ standoffish personality.