By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

FREE National Movement (FNM) Free Town candidate Dionisio DAguilar has committed his party to several day one initiatives should his party triumph in the general election, contending that the ousting of Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) government would again give way to good governance spearheaded by the FNM.

On stage at the FNMs regional candidates launch at Christie Park on Thursday, Mr DAguilar questioned the Christie administrations handling of Value-Added Tax (VAT) revenue collected over the past three years.

To that end, the Free Town candidate said the FNM would institute both a Freedom of Information Act and a Fiscal Responsibility Act on day one of its administration.

Emperor Christie and his band of bandits have plundered this country over the past five years, the well known businessman told supporters. (Some of them) made their bank accounts fat signing contracts and making deals that benefits them and their families, leaving the poor Bahamian people to pick up the tab for his out-of-control spending.

Everything they touch smells stink. They have spent $400m of taxpayer money, your VAT money, bailing out loans for their cronies from the Bank of The Bahamas. They have spent tens of millions. Some say $50m, some say $100m - the exact figure we will never know - awarding contracts to their friends and families to build buildings at BAMSI, sometimes twice.

Then there is the tens of millions that went missing at the Road Traffic Department and the Passport Office. And let us not forget the hundreds of millions that have been allocated and spent on housing projects, new schools, garbage collection and the dump and we have nothing, I mean nothing, to show for it.

Emperor Christie and his fat cat Cabinet are corrupt. They are thiefing, thiefing our VAT money and they need to go. The only people who seem to get anything from Emperor Christie are his corrupt Cabinet and the Chinese government.

FNMs, if we give Emperor Christie another five years, he will drive our economy over the edge.When the PLP came to office in 2012, our National Debt was $5 billion. Now the National Debt is $7 billion. And that is even after they collected $1.4 billion in VAT, Mr DAguilar said.

He said the Prime Ministers unrelenting push for re-election should stun voters, as it comes despite the evidence that Mr Christies lengthy political career had done nothing but improve the lives of his friends, family and colleagues as everyday Bahamians struggled to survive.

He said his party would also look to guard against the potential of any other leader pursuing legacy terms in office by implementing fixed election dates, term limits and an independent Boundaries Commission.

FNMs do you believe that Christie is a god? Do you want Christie to remain the Emperor? Emperor Christie has been in Parliament for the past 43 years. Let that sink in, 43 years. That is a lot longer that half of you have been alive. I was eight years old when he went into Parliament, and I am now 52.

And we know why he doesnt want to leave. He loves the pomp, he loves the pageantry, the nice Mercedes, the beautiful Lexus, the bodyguards, the outriders, the private jet for him and his family. What other job can Christie find where he can get away with the slackness he does now? Please, please my fellow Bahamians, in the name of Jesus, on election day let us send Emperor Christie home.

Mr DAguilar went on to mention the Prime Ministers propensity to fall asleep while at public functions. He alleged that during a meeting in which he and Mr Christie represented Bahamian interests, the Prime Minister feel asleep during negotiations. Emperor Christie did close his eyes and bam, he was asleep, Mr DAguilar said.

I had to bang my hand on the table to wake him up. Unbelievable. Embarrassing. FNMs, Emperor Christie is tired. He is exhausted. Let us retire him on election day, he added.

Addressing his Free Town candidacy, Mr DAguilar said he would put his 25 years of business experience to use improving the lives of prospective constituents. He said the constituents of Free Town are in need of jobs. He insisted that unlike attorney Wayne Munroe, the PLPs Free Town candidate, he was suited to meet the needs of these residents.

FNMs, I have had to use my ingenuity, my passion, my creativity to grow my business to create job opportunities for Bahamians and I pledge tonight that I will do the same for the people of Freetown.I am certainly better qualified to deliver on this promise that my PLP opponent, lawyer Wayne Munroe. We need to make it easier, not harder to start a business.

We need to make it easier, not harder to operate a business. Do that and the jobs will come and the crime will go down. In addition, I want to use my many years of running a business to empower the people of Free Town to start and run their own businesses.

I will provide seminars. I will teach them myself on the dos and donts of how to make a business successful. The FNM will also create a tax-free zone in the inner city for small and mid-sized businesses, making it easier and cheaper to start a business in these economically depressed areas.

Free Town, I hear you and I will do my best to create employment opportunities for you.

In addition to Mr DAguilar and Mr Munroe, the DNA have ratified Karen Davis as the partys standard-bearer in Free Town, while the Bahamas National Constitutional Party has ratified Andrew Stewart.

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An FNM govt 'would institute Freedom of Information, Fiscal ... - Bahamas Tribune