In December 2016, seven of the ten FNM House Members executed a vote of no confidence in then-
leader of the opposition, Hubert Minnis. This was the first time that a no-confidence vote was staged in the Bahamas, against a
leader of the opposition. After the seven members wrote a letter to the Governor-General on the matter, Member of Parliament for Long Island
Loretta Butler-Turner was named the new
leader of the opposition. Her appointment marked the first time that a woman, a Long Islander, or a person not leading the political party of which they were a member, was charged to be Leader of the Opposition. Subsequent to her appointment, Butler-Turner named then-DNA leader
Branville McCartney as Leader of Opposition Business in the Bahamas Senate. This was the first time in which the DNA has been named to the upper chamber, and the first time in which a politician from one party appointed a member of a rival party to lead the Bahamas senate. After months of coalition discussions between opposition parties in advance of the 2017 elections, both Turner and McCartney in a joint Press Conference affirmed that uniting the opposition was the best plan for ousting the
Progressive Liberal Party government in the impending elections. However, less than three months later, McCartney announced his resignation from the Bahamas Senate on 2 March 2017, and claimed that Loretta Butler-Turner had only "sown seeds of confusion since assuming her post, bringing no real leadership or focused ideas to the fore". In the 2017 national election; the DNA had a 43% decrease in the party's vote tally compared to their initial election performance in 2012. == Post-2017 Election ==