NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC)— The deputy leader of the main opposition Free National Movement (FNM), Shanendon Cartwright, Wednesday threw the mace out of Parliament resulting in opposition legislators being ejected from the building.

Cartwright, the parliamentary representative St Barnabas, seized the mace and threw it from the window forcing the 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 in denying the request had explained that was against House rules, 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 in an effort 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 I was in fear 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 honourable deputy speaker was given a blow to the head and has to go to hospital. And we have a police officer with terrible damage to his leg.

“This is Parliament, this is where we come, where we were elected to come to take care of the citizens of this country. This is not a political arena. This is Parliament and this Speaker, I’m strong, I 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.