FNM CAN'T REGROUP AFTER AWFUL DEFEAT AT THE POLLS 
 
The Free National Movement is still licking its bleeding wounds after getting a nasty beating at the polls for the May 7 General Elections.  But those wounds won’t heal anytime soon because FNM leaders now have to bear the thrashing of those mega-rich investors who had high hopes and were sold the dream that he would remain Prime Minister of the Bahamas and could fulfill their wishes for the next five years.  
But it is those same investors who, in many ways, cost them the elections.  Three of the known friends of the FNM who are developers helped to tarnish their image in major ways during their last term in office.  The Tribune newspaper printed a RED LETTER headline in their publication, attacking former Environment Minister Earl Deveaux for being so friendly with billionaire Islamic investor, Aga Khan IV that he was caught jetting around in the Aga Khan’s luxury helicopter even though he had a proposal for excavation and dredging before him from the same investor.  
Mr. Ingraham made one of his most fatal mistakes as the nation’s leader when he sided with Mr. Deveaux on the matter.  He went as far as to say that he also rode in the helicopter and chilled out at Bell Island while their grandchildren played - and he would do it again and again!  He rejected Mr. Deveaux’s resignation and went on to allow his entire Cabinet to use the luxury aircraft to travel throughout the country to view the devastation left by hurricanes.  It didn’t help that Mr. Deveaux was quietly building his dream home at Old Fort Bay at the same time.  
The newspapers took to bashing Mr. Deveaux once again when he allowed Louis Bacon to dredge for his marina without a permit. Then the former National Security Minister made it even more obvious that the FNM Cabinet was covering up for Bacon when they allowed him to keep dangerous military speaker weapons at his home even though he had intentionally used them to harm his neighbor, Peter Nygard.  Police officers even covered up the results of an autopsy report done on Dan Tuckfield, his late employee who was found floating naked in Bacon’s pool, dead.  
Former Finance Minister Zhivargo Laing didn’t gain any points for the government during the controversial sale of BTC.  An irate public had to deal with the person responsible for finances telling them that there wasn’t much difference between 49 and 51 per cent ownership.  
Former Culture Minister Charles Maynard added to the disgraced Cabinet when he failed to bring Carifesta to The Bahamas, although much advertising had been done to say the event would be held here, causing much anticipation from residents.  
As one political pundit put it, “Mr. Ingraham did what he wanted, when he wanted, how he wanted no matter what the people of the country wanted or needed.  He took care of who he needed to and wanted to in the inner circle of FNM benefactors and cronies and left those who believed in him in the wider public to fend for themselves.”
“He fired customs officers, told high ranking police officers to go home and basically threw veteran ZNS employees out on their butts and called them ungrateful.  He used government funds to build a temporary port and gave the shareholders a 45 year monopoly. He watched as thousands lost their homes to foreclosure.  He promised a new hospital, which he never built. He gave a contract to a foreign company to build roads who botched the job to the tone of almost $100 million in over runs. Even in the face of all this mismanagement and bad decision making the FNM still thought that they could pull it out in the end.”