Former Cabinet Minister Leslie Miller has called for a 'truce' between the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) and the Free National Movement (FNM) during the remainder of the election season.
Over the past few weeks several PLP and FNM candidates have hurled insults at each other during their respective rallies and constituency office openings.
Miller, who has launched several verbal attacks against National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest and State Minister for Social Development Loretta Butler-Turner, said yesterday politicians on both sides should focus on the issues during the rest of the election season.
However, Turnquest said he would not give in to a verbal ceasefire. The Mount Moriah MP said he plans to sue Miller unless he publicly apologizes for certain disparaging comments.
Turnquest said the allegations - which were made by Miller on Monday night at the opening of the PLP's Golden Gates constituency office - have hurt his wife and family.
"What Leslie Miller did on Monday night was despicable," Turnquest told The Nassau Guardian. "I'm seeking legal advice at the moment, and until he apologizes to my wife, there will be no truce. My wife is very hurt that someone would [speak about her] that way and [of] her husband that way.
"He can [say those things] and expect everything to be okay? Now he wants a truce? You got to be joking. He says he's a 'potcake'? Well Bahamians keep 'potcakes' in the yard, not in the house and definitely not in the House of Assembly."
Miller said Bahamian politicians should focus their campaigns on the real issues affecting voters. He said his earlier gibes were only made in self defense after jokes were made about him "stealing toilets".
"They attacked me first," Miller said. "I was minding my own business. If you don't defend yourself, people will believe it. This is so gutless and unnecessary and so contrary to what we are as a people. Let everybody call a truce and act like sensible people.
"It [isn't] going to stop until we as grown men and women decide we are going to stop. This has nothing to do with the issues going on in our country."
Miller has made public jokes about Butler-Turner's weight.
Last night, the Montagu MP, who is now running on the FNM's ticket for Long Island, said while the disparaging remarks about her size have not hurt her, they have turned off some female voters.
"Everybody knows I am a big person," Butler-Turner said.
"I am comfortable in my own skin. I'm full of self-esteem. But the way he disrespected me clearly demonstrated how he disrespects females in general. I'm glad that he now wants a truce in the wake of the fact that so many females have called me to let me know that they won't even consider supporting him."
Butler-Turner admitted that she referred to Miller as a self-described 'potcake' during an FNM event in Southern Shores, but said, "I never called this man something he never called himself.
"When we look at this gutter politics, more and more persons want to hear the issues and they do not want to hear the negativity. If somebody throws something at you, what are you are going to do?"
In the election season so far, there has been a lot of mudslinging and claims of corruption being hurled back and forth.
At a political event last week, Turnquest made homosexual innuendos about PLPs, and also used words like rape and prostitution.
The FNM's candidate for North Andros and the Berry Islands Desmond Bannister said the PLP had a bunch of geriatrics at their North Andros event last week. Among those sitting up front were former Governor General A. D. Hanna, Dame Marguerite Pindling and retired Archbishop Drexel Gomez.
And Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham recently questioned the motives of long-time director of the National AIDS Programme Dr. Perry Gomez, who is now the PLP's candidate for North Andros and the Berry Islands.
Ingraham asked at a recent political event: "Ask him when did he become interested or concerned about North Andros or about people like you who [don't have] AIDS? When did he become concerned about you?"
Gomez's family and many PLPs saw it as an unfair attack on a man who has spent decades fighting HIV/AIDS in The Bahamas.
The prime minister has also sought to link PLPs to known drug dealers.

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