Two candidates have left the DNA party, allegedly after daring to disagree with the party’s self-appointed maximum leader Bran McCartney.
Former High Rock candidate Philip Thomas, and former South Beach candidate Sammie ‘Starr’ Poitier both confirmed yesterday they have left the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) party.
However, there seems to be some confusion over why Mr Thomas is no longer the candidate for High Rock.
DNA leader Branville McCartney said the party has revoked the nominations of two of its candidates for non-performance.
But Mr Thomas claims he was kicked out for disagreeing with Mr McCartney. Thomas said his candidacy was revoked after he dared to disagree with McCartney in public, during a meeting with the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce last month.
Thomas claimed McCartney said that if the DNA wins the next election, it would not build a new hospital in Freeport.
“McCartney’s response was “we can’t build the hospital for Grand Bahama because the treasury would be broken,” the Nassau Guardian reports Thomas as saying.
“At the end of [his speech] I said to them that I beg to differ from the leader’s position and went on to tell them that the government promised us, and consecutive governments promised us (a hospital] for the past thirty years. “Plans were drawn up but nothing was done. I said [a DNA] government could align themselves with the likes of Ross University or someone from the private sector to build the hospital and that is my position.”
Thomas said that members of the DNA nomination committee called him out of the meeting before it was concluded and scolded him for disagreeing with the leader in public.
Shortly after the incident, Mr Thomas received a letter stating that the party had rescinded his nomination.
The Nassau Guardian reported that Mr Thomas told a reporter that Mr McCartney was “worse than Hubert Ingraham” when it came to being authoritarian.
Mr McCartney disagrees with Thomas’ version of events saying that the party’s decision to revoke Thomas’s candidacy “certainly had nothing to do with him disagreeing with me”.
He went on to say that the reason the candidacy was revoked was because Mr Thomas was not “following certain policies and regulations we have in the party for each candidate relative to their constituency.”
McCartney also claimed that Mr Starr was not performing up to the party’s expectations either.
Mr Starr posted a statement about the issue on his Facebook page.
“Over the last few days there has been some speculation in regards to my candidacy. I, Sammie ‘Starr’ Poitier am no longer the Democratic National Alliance’s candidate for the South Rep Beach constituency, as of Wednesday, November 23, 2011,” the popular entertainer wrote.
“I thank you for allowing me into your homes and into your hearts,” Poitier noted. “We have already begun working together. We will continue to work on building our community center and developing other programs that will strengthen our community.”
McCartney said new candidates would be announced soon but certainly the spats do not bode well for Mr McCartney’s claims to be less dictatorial than Mr Ingraham.
