PLP Rejected Iram Lewis Before COI Move — Didn’t See Him as Cabinet Material

By Staff Reporter

NASSAU — Former FNM Member of Parliament Iram Lewis officially joined the Coalition of Independents (COI) last week—but the Bahamas Herald can confirm that this move came only after he was quietly rejected by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), following an approach in which he reportedly sought a Cabinet post in exchange for switching sides.

According to multiple senior PLP sources, Lewis had engaged intermediaries about joining the governing party—but only if he were guaranteed a ministerial appointment. His overture was swiftly dismissed.

“There was no interest—none,” one senior PLP official told the Herald. “He wasn’t seen as a political asset, and certainly not as Cabinet material.”

Lewis, who served as Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture under the Minnis administration and later contested the FNM leadership, has been politically adrift since losing his seat in the 2021 general election. In recent months, he had grown increasingly frustrated with his marginalization within the FNM and reportedly began exploring other options.

After being turned away by the PLP, Lewis was unveiled last week as a new member of the COI, the populist movement led by Lincoln Bain.

Though the COI welcomed his experience, political observers see Lewis’s move as more about survival than ideology.

“He needed a platform—any platform,” one former political colleague said. “The PLP wasn’t going to offer him one, and the FNM moved on long ago. The COI was his only door.”

Neither Lewis nor the PLP have publicly commented on the matter.

While his addition to the COI gives the movement a former Cabinet face, insiders say his political weight has significantly diminished—and that within the Davis administration, his approach was viewed more as political desperation than strategic value.

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