NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC—On Wednesday, the deputy leader of the main opposition Free National Movement (FNM), Shanendon Cartwright, threw the mace out of Parliament, resulting in opposition legislators being ejected from the building.
Cartwright, the parliamentary representative of St Barnabas, seized the mace and threw it from the window, forcing Speaker Patricia Deveaux to order his removal.
Cartwright had protested the decision of the Speaker not to allow Opposition Leader Michael Pintard to address the controversy surrounding allegations in a United States indictment that members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) were involved in drug trafficking.
The Speaker had explained that this was against House rules in denying the request, but Cartwright stood and shouted, “Let the people speak,” before he marched to the Speaker’s table, grabbed the mace, and threw it out after several attempts to ram the window open.
Police later ejected all the opposition legislators after the Speaker had ordered Cartwright’s removal. The opposition members linked arms to prevent his removal.
“This is a dark day in this political arena that we call politics. For the first time in my life, when I took the oath of office, I felt challenged and feared for my life. I will review the tapes, and I will apprise the country later of my findings, but during today’s event, I was assaulted, I was hit, thank God for a glass of water in front of me.
“The honorable deputy speaker was given a blow to the head and had to go to the hospital. And we have a police officer with terrible damage to his leg.
“This is Parliament; this is where we come from, where we were elected to take care of the citizens of this country. This is not a political arena. This is Parliament and this Speaker. I’m strong and will uphold the rights of the Bahamian people of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas as long as I sit in this chair. I am not a weakling. God is my protector,” Deveaux added.
Parliament resumed after a 15-minute suspension.
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