Hubert A. Ingraham

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The Rt. Hon. Hubert Alexander Ingraham, was re-elected Parliamentary Representative for North Abaco, in the General Election of 2 May 2007 and took the oath of office becoming Prime Minister of The Bahamas for a third time on Friday 4 May 2007.

Mr. Ingraham previously served as Prime Minister of The Bahamas for two consecutive terms between 1992 and 2002 when he voluntarily chose not to seek re-election to Leadership of his Party, the Free National Movement.

Mr. Ingraham's plan was not to again seek either the leadership of the Free National Movement or the office of Prime Minister again. However, the PLP Government had so damaged the trust of the Bahamian people by late 2005 that he was again pressed into service. Acquiescing to the pleas of citizens and to the will of the Free National Movement Mr. Ingraham permitted his name to be entered into the Party Leadership election. He was elected Leader of the Free National Movement (FNM) on November 10, 2005 becoming the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament for the second time.

At the time Mr. Ingraham said that it boiled down to a matter of trust. "The country needs and deserves reform no matter what, because the loss of trust in government has been so great." And he maintained that the FNM had developed an agenda to renew the people's trust in government.

He says national leadership by the Free National Movement will once again bring the interests of Bahamians into focus and to the forefront of government's social and economic policies, remove influence peddling from the halls of government, restore integrity and honesty to public life, and reintroduce initiatives to achieve efficient and effective government left in abeyance during the last four and a half years.

Mr. Ingraham was born on Grand Bahama and raised in humble circumstances in the North Abaco community of Cooper's Town. Educated at public schools in Cooper's Town and later in New Providence Mr. Ingraham completed his secondary education at the Government High Evening Institute.

Following brief periods of employment in the accounting departments of Owens-Illinois Sugar Mill Company in Abaco, The Bahamas Telecommunications Corporation and the Chase Manhattan Bank in Nassau, Mr. Ingraham became an articled law clerk in the Chambers of McKinney Bancroft and Hughes. He was called to The Bahamas Bar in December, 1972. Mr. Ingraham entered private law practice and became the senior partner in the law firm of Christie, Ingraham & Co.

Mr. Ingraham has been elected on seven consecutive occasions as the representative of his hometown constituency Cooper's Town (North Abaco).

He was first elected to Parliament in 1977 as a member of the Progressive Liberal Party. Fired from the Cabinet and expelled from the Party in 1985 because of his principled position against corruption, he was re-elected to Parliament in 1987 as an Independent. He joined the Free National Movement in 1990. He led the Free National Movement to general election victory in August, 1992 and served as Prime Minister of The Bahamas between 1992 and 2002.

Mr. Ingraham from an early age displayed tremendous interest in public policy and national development. Down-to-earth, forward looking and committed to making life better for all Bahamians, Mr. Ingraham is a born leader.

He came to national prominence because of his strong opposition to a culture of privilege and dishonesty that had come to infest Bahamian political life by the mid-1980s; a time marked by allegations of drug corruption in high places, declining public sector investment, crumbling public infrastructure, dwindling private sector investment, and spiraling unemployment.

Mr. Ingraham believes unreservedly that the foremost responsibility of leadership is the creation of opportunities to enhance the quality of life of citizens.

He has a natural affinity with the less fortunate in society and has a strong social conscience. Hence his overriding concern to ensure improved education and skills training programmes for young people; his commitment to enhanced health care for the poor ;his promotion of home-ownership among low and middle-income families; and his focus on the economic empowerment of Bahamians through employment and by increased ownership in the economy.

Notwithstanding his strong identification with and ties to the working class, Mr. Ingraham has tremendous respect for the business community. He cultivated and maintains important relationships with the Bahamian and international business and investment communities.

The FNM Leader believes that government economic policies ought to facilitate expansion in the private sector while ensuring effective and efficient regulation.

No friend to waste, his tenure in Government was marked by the reduction in the size of Government, cutting the number of seats in Parliament from 49 to 40, reducing Government's direct intervention in the economy and promoting new private investment, both domestic and international.

He and his government have been credited with the revitalisation of The Bahamas economy from negative to positive growth. Massive international capital investments particularly in the tourism and financial services sectors began to return to The Bahamas during Mr. Ingraham's tenure in office. The restored confidence in The Bahamas as a good jurisdiction in which to conduct business continues today to attract high net worth individuals and investors to the country.

Mr. Ingraham believes that the deepening of democracy, the end to government monopoly of the airwaves, the introduction of elected local government, the expanded Bahamian ownership in the economy and the fostering of environmental awareness are among the most significant of his government's achievements in office.

He believes that further advances in local government are critical to meeting the interests and demands of Bahamians to be more effectively involved in the decision-making processes that shape their lives and their environment.

He looks forward to once again providing the kind of leadership required to achieve improved efficiencies in government; to tackle the challenges confronting the public education system; to furthering initiatives to link other productive sectors of the economy to the tourism engine, and to addressing crime and the fear of crime in the country.

Mr. Ingraham is married to the former Delores Miller of Long Island, Bahamas, a high school principal in the government operated school system. The couple has five children and two grandsons.