Prime Minister Perry Christie has said he was saddened over accusations that Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) victimization of the father of its North Abaco candidate Renardo Curry ultimately led to his death. The charge came from Curry's stepmother, Phillipa Rolle-Curry, who last week told attendees of a town meeting in Abaco that her late husband struggled through years of stress after he was fired in 2003 from the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC), a year after the PLP won the general election. She claimed her husband suffered a mild heart attack when he was fired and that same stress from the job loss led to his death in 2010.
At a rally in Treasure Cay on Saturday, Christie encouraged Curry not to be impacted by the family feud. "We present Renardo Curry to you as a young man with a Christian reputation, a man who is a kind and gentle man," the prime minister said. "I want to as your leader tell you I was so saddened when I saw his stepmother bring him and all that you know about him, bring him into question." Rolle-Curry made the remarks at a Guardian Radio and Cable 12 town meeting in Marsh Harbour, Abaco on Thursday.
Moments after she made her claims, her stepson Kermit Curry came behind her and tried to snatch her husband's obituary from her hand. The live television program went to a commercial break when this occurred. When it returned Rolle-Curry and Kermit Curry had left the hall. The PLP released a statement on Kermit Curry's behalf. "In nothing short of sheer, crafted, political witchery, my brother Renardo was... mischaracterized by our late father's widow," Kermit Curry said in the statement. At the rally on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis said his party has put forth a quality candidate and questioned if the other side could boast the same thing.
"As for the other guy that's running, we are all scratching our heads over that one," Davis said, referring to the Free National Movement's candidate Greg Gomez. "I don't have the heart to light into him. In fact I think they have done him a disservice. "It seems like it's just been one day after another of bad news for him. He started with a story of victimization and now he doesn't know quite how to explain that very cheerful letter of resignation he sent. "He's been hanging up on reporters, tangling himself up in explanations over his sources of income.
I know this is politics, but I'm just not the kind of person who wants to hit someone when they are so far down. He is so far down that he's trying to cover all those holes in his stories with piles of money. If they offer some money and things are tough for you, take it." Gomez had difficulty last week recounting his past employment in the United States as an educator and inconsistencies have emerged in his story of being victimized by the new PLP administration after media questions regarding his claims.
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