HAS PINTARD BEAT BACK HIS INTERNAL OPPONENTS?

Looking at the Opposition benches in the House of Assembly, they looked like a uniform bunch with their lapels all tagged with what seemed like a ribbon for breast cancer month. There the plaudits lapse, because it is clear that each is on a frolic of their own. The Leader is the one we concentrate on because he is the most desperate.  A few weeks ago, we would have sworn that he was finished. Hubert Ingraham, the former Prime Minister, and the FNM’s backroom godfather, launched a back room coup on him, with the forces gathering and telling Mr. Pintard he had to go. It looked for a minute like he was tottering but we now say it looks like he has beat back the forces. We think in part it is really how the system is stacked up against anyone trying to dislodge the leader of a party. The deck is firmly stacked in the Leader’s favour.  In the case of the FNM, the only way he can be removed as Leader of the Opposition is by the MPs going to Government House and saying they want a new leader. But there is not one of them who want to repeat that error made in the time when they removed Dr. Hubert Minnis that way. Dr. Minnis retained firm control of the party and ended up becoming Prime Minister after the 2017 general election. Michael Pintard told the forces against him that he would not oppose them holding a party convention but he would not be looking for any money to mount it. He said that if they could find the money good luck to them but he also wanted them to know that if they mounted a convention, he would be running. Our guess is that was check and effectively checkmate. They do not have one man jack to get up and oppose him in Parliament and the scheme of Hubert Ingraham to get Zhivargo Laing to come as interim leader from the senate is as harebrained as you ever heard. So our bet is Pintard survives. What is interesting is that Brent Dean, the Guardia columnist, who has been largely anti PLP during the campaign, wrote in his column that Brave Davis appears to be a shoo in to try another term in office given what is happening on the FNM side and the run of luck he has had so far in governing. Life is interesting.