While he believes former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham's time has passed, leader of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Branville McCartney said yesterday young people in politics could benefit from Ingraham's guidance.

"I think his wise counsel can go a long way," said McCartney, who resigned from Ingraham's cabinet in 2010.

"I think he's at the stage to guide the younger leaders of this country." McCartney said the same of Prime Minister Perry Christie. Ingraham has never indicated that he is interested in returning to politics.

However, Christie indicated recently that if Ingraham returns, he would consider staying on. The prime minister recently said McCartney is not worthy to lead because of his dismissive attitude toward him and Ingraham.

McCartney's comments on Ingraham and Christie came in response to the results of a new Public Domain poll, which showed him (McCartney) as the most popular opposition politician among several polled.

The results of the poll showed that 31 percent of respondents viewed McCartney as "very favorable".

Twenty-seven percent viewed FNM Deputy Leader Loretta Butler-Turner as very favorable and 27 percent also viewed Ingraham as very favorable.

Seventeen percent viewed former Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette as very favorable and 17 percent viewed Minnis as very favorable. Eleven percent of respondents said the same about FNM Senator John Bostwick.

Just over 600 people were polled. President of Public Domain M'wale Rahming said this is a respectable sample size for the population of The Bahamas.

Analyzing the results, Rahming said McCartney did not learn how to turn his popularity into votes. McCartney said he has assessed what went wrong for the DNA in 2012.

"We determined where we went wrong," he said. "Time was a factor, money was a factor, persons had issues with some of our candidates and there was fear that a vote for the DNA was a vote for the FNM and that was something that was heralded by the PLP.

"As you know, many people didn't want to see Mr. Ingraham's return. That galvanized strength and caused us tremendously. "You can see now that, that is not the case. We are a party that is moving forward."

McCartney said he believes Bahamians are fed up with the way the country is being run and also with the "same old" leaders. "We don't think the country is going in the right direction," he said.

McCartney said the DNA has already launched its campaign for the 2017 election. "We are starting to work on the ground," he said. "The last time we had 11 months before the last election.

We were able to pull 13,181 votes and we made political history. "We ran a full slate of candidates. But of course timing was a factor as well.

We started from ground zero and we almost got 10 percent of the vote." Bostwick, who is a political newcomer, said he was honored to be among the group of favorable opposition politicians. Bostwick said while he is not actively pursuing the leadership position in the FNM, it is among his goals.

"Do I think I am prepared to take on that mantle? Yes," he said. "Is it something that I am pushing for at this present time? I can't say yes or no.

"I am trying to perform and serve the Bahamian people at the highest level possible." Asked if he is interested in the position, he said, "I am interested and willing.

"Right now the most important thing for us to do is lend ourselves to the development of our country. I say all hands on deck. It's not about a push to leadership. "It's about a push to have the best country possible."

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