“Rebel FNM’s refuse to quit –Key: I won’t be forced out of party” – The Tribune

Excerpt from this article; “In the aftermath of Free National Movement Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis call for the ‘rebel’ seven members if Parliament to resign from the party or face disciplinary action, several signatories on the letter to revoke his appointment as Official Opposition leader in Parliament have said that they are declining to quit, one of them insisting ‘I won’t be forced out’ of the organization.

Central and South Abaco MP Edison Key told The Tribune that Dr. Minnis could not force him to leave the FNM.  Mr. Key maintained that instead if Dr. Minnis calling for their resignations, he should be the one to bow out of the top post of the party because his parliamentary caucus no longer reposes confidence in his ability to lead them.

Mr. Key, 78, said he expected to be expelled.  However, he said, this does not mean anything to him.

Meanwhile, Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant said he ‘respectfully’ rejected the leader’s request to leave the party.  Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn, North Eleuthera MP Theo Neilly and St. Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, speaking to ZNS News, also said they had no plans to resign from the party.”

It is indeed has become a very precarious situation because as Mr. Key says, “I am an elected member of Parliament,’ Mr. Key said yesterday when he was contacted.  He, (Dr. Minnis) can’t force me to resign.  What he should do is the honorable thing and step down.  The parliamentary group has lost all confidence in Dr. Minnis and the stalwarts in the party should replace him.”

Oddly, from what I gather the stalwarts/MCM’s within the party actually support Dr. Minnis but as Mr. Key asks for Dr. Minnis to do the ‘honorable thing and step down’, it is obvious that they seek to force Dr. Minnis from the leadership position of the party, while insisting that he [Dr. Minnis] cannot force them out of the party; this is nothing less than rank and utter hypocrisy.

Darron Cash, former chairman of the Free National Movement once said that the party needed to have a “Come to Jesus moment” and I feel that this is it, because as the party had just began to attract quality candidates and attention from many undecided’s and supporter of other political parties, we now have this and the questions that will stand ; what does Ms. Butler-Turner and her colleagues wish to accomplish by this move and how will this change attract these persons that were giving the Free National Movement another look and can certain person in the organization be trusted at their word?

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