Video: BNV Brief | OBA Leader On Election

It’s “hypocritical of the Premier to even base the fact that he’s going to have a general election because there’s going to be a string of by-elections,” OBA Leader Craig Cannonier said during a brief Bernews News & Views episode shortly after it was announced that a General Election will be held on October 1st.

When asked how prepared were the OBA for the announcement, Mr Cannonier told Bernews, “The OBA has been prepared for some time now, and I think that’s part of the fear that the Premier has, that the OBA would be ready for a General Election.

“I think what is disappointing is that the Premier continues to base this selfish decision that he’s made to hold an election right now, based on a falsehood and a false premise that I was going to have a bunch of by-elections, a string of by-elections that would have cost the taxpayers money. But instead he’s used this as an excuse. It is a falsehood and quite frankly, I believe it’s hypocritical of the Premier to even base the fact that he’s going to have a general election, because there’s going to be a string of by-elections.”

Mr Cannonier added, “I believe that you were in the interview when the question was asked of me about by-elections, and I said that I believe that there will be by-elections based on PLP members and OBA members. So maybe what the Premier needs to do is tell the public about the resignations or the resigning that he would have on his side. We certainly did not say to him that we were going to have a slew of by-elections. It’s a complete falsehood, and it’s disappointing that the Premier would respond in like manner.”

When asked for any information who on the PLP side was maybe going to resign, Mr Cannonier responded, “That’s on him. I’m aware that there were some that were looking to resign, but that’s basically on the Premier to speak up to. The point is that he is propagating a falsehood, a complete lie, that we were going to have all these slew of by-elections.

“And he’s basing it on money. The Premier would rather spend 1.2 million in paying out to a former Premier of his, rather than go to court to see whether or not it’s the right thing to do. But he’d like to spend that kind of money, rather than using the money for a by-election to help the people out.”

Mr Cannonier said, “Just yesterday on the street while I was walking and speaking to taxi drivers, they’re concerned, they’re concerned about their future. We need to be spending our money on what’s happening right now. Right now in Bermuda people are starving. They’re hungry. They can’t afford groceries. Right now people have lost their jobs and can’t find a new job. And people continue to lose their jobs.”

“Why would you call an election at this time, when now we’re beginning to see Covid numbers in double digits. Why? You’ve got almost two years to call an election. The Premier needs to get on with fixing the economy rather than playing these silly politricks. And that’s what’s going on here. We need to be very clear, Bermuda, on what we see happening here. We need to fix the economy.”

Mr Cannonier said, “I’m excited about the fact that he’s called it. Let’s go, let’s get this thing on. He can speak to the issues that he’s having on his side all day long. I can speak to them as well. But we need to put solutions on the table on how we fix the economy and how we get our social programs going so that people are not being left behind.”

When asked when we can expect the OBA to announce all their candidates, Mr Cannonier replied, “We’ve got a good slew of candidates already ready to go, and we’ll be rolling those out in time.”

“We just rolled out a candidate and it took the Premier almost three weeks to roll out his candidate for a seat that he should have been ready for. So I don’t buy the premise on his interview just now that the Opposition should be ready, the Premier was not ready for a by-election in this particular constituency where Trevor Moniz retired, and took three weeks when he already had an incumbent, someone that had run in that seat two times before. And it takes him three weeks, three weeks to bring out a candidate. That means he’s got trouble in his camp.”

Mr Cannonier added, “I think what we’re already hearing on the doorstep right now is that the economy is failing. We’ve got people who are hungry. We’ve got jobless people. We’ve got the economy and stores closing up. It’s all about the economy right now and how we get things going.

“We’ve had three years now waiting for the PLP, our Premier to come up with some solutions on how we move forward. We haven’t seen any solutions about how we fix the economy. What we have seen is when we work together we can be successful in overcoming something like a pandemic. But the PLP government, led by Premier Burt, has not put any solutions on getting investment into the island. That’s where we are.”

Mr Cannonier added, “We have a major issue of ensuring that our education, a second pillar of concern in Bermuda has to be resolved.”

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