Former Deputy Prime Minister and former Parliamentarian, Desmond Bannister commented on Thursday on the state of the Free National Movement (FNM) following its defeat at the polls on Tuesday. The party won a mere 8 of the 41 seats contested.

Bannister told ZNS News, “I have nothing against Mr. Pintard, I want to make that clear, but I believe firmly that if you lose an election you step aside.”

Michael Pintard was elected to lead the FNM at a convention held in November 2021 after the Minnis administration was defeated in the elections held in September of that year. This party has tried to distance itself from the Minnis era stating during the 2026 election campaign that it was under new management.

Bannister opined that this move was a mistake. He said, “it may also made a serious mistake when it turned him down for a nomination. And I’ll tell you why, even though he did not win his seat in Killarney, in every constituency in this country there are people who made the determination that they would not vote for the FNM because the perceive that the Party treated him unfairly.”

Former Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Hubert Ingraham was quoted in a local morning daily to have said the FNM is still hurting from mistakes made under the Minnis administration.

Bannister spoke to friction within the FNM saying, “there is a group of FNMs now who form a group called The Round Table. These are people who have campaigned in the FNM all their lives. They were responsible for some of the PLP candidates winning this election because they led those campaigns. They felt that their party has put them out. Whoever leads the FNM now has to go back and reconcile with those people.”

The former minister also expressed confidence that the persons elected to Parliament for the FNM are capable of leading the party forward. He said the FNM’s future will depend on whether it can rebuild trust, reconcile with members and reconnect with voters before deciding on a new leader.

It should be noted that the Free National Movement released a statement on Thursday afternoon announcing that Michael Pintard will stay on as leader of the party and will be sworn in a Leader of the Opposition next week.