The Progressive Labour Party’s by-election victory dealt good press to its leader along with a stinging rebuke to the Bermuda Government over the state of the economy, according to a PLP source.

Meanwhile Glenn Blakeney, the former MP for Devonshire North Central, attributed Thursday’s high voter turnout to the One Bermuda Alliance’s “trust deficit on anything it touches”.

Diallo Rabain’s win over Andrew Simons drew the biggest voter attendance for a PLP by-election win since Derrick Burgess took Hamilton East in 1998.

With 827 ballots for a constituency of 1,300, the by-election mustered a 64 per cent turnout — the highest for a PLP victory since 65 per cent showed at Hamilton East, and comparing favourably with the turnouts for past victories by Jamahl Simmons (59 per cent), Marc Bean (40 per cent) and Michael Weeks (39 per cent).

“The present economic conditions in the country are driving all of this; I don’t think Marc Bean entered the minds of the voters,” the party insider said, adding: “He needed this to put himself in a good light.

“But the voters’ concerns was a desperate attempt to do anything to see their economic woes turned around.

“At this point, what would be interesting would be if the OBA does not turn the economy around and make good on its promises, and if the PLP continues to have infighting or dissension among its parliamentary group. Then it would be interesting to see what happens at the next election.

“I’ve been hearing from a number of people who are getting turned off by politics: the allegations, the suspicions of corruption and kickbacks, and now the PLP’s apparent infighting. If it’s true that the Opposition leader has banned six or seven members from the caucus, that does not say much for the PLP as a cohesive unit.”

The PLP source said: “More than the PLP rallying, it was the Government’s failure to produce the jobs that they promised. Peoples’ expectations are not being met. That pushed people to come out. At the end of the day, it’s a PLP stronghold and we would have expected them to hold the seat. Maintaining a seat that you’ve held forever is nothing to get excited about.”

The OBA’s electoral vow to create 2,000 jobs was deemed a case of “a political party making promises that it can’t keep”.

Mr Blakeney laid the blame on an accumulation of OBA failings, saying: “We have the gaming referendum, the airport issue still front and centre, a lot of unemployment and no significant jobs delivered, and no shovels in the ground.

“There is the revocation, by the Government, of the contract for the waterfront, and the intervention of the minister into the running of the corporation.

“Then they have egg on their face by having a premier and a party that removed a former premier over ‘Jetgate’ but yet kept virtually the same Cabinet,” Mr Blakeney added, referring to the resignation of former Premier Craig Cannonier, who was appointed Minister of Public Works eight months later “without substantiating what earned him that right”.

“Concerns over that affair have never been addressed publicly, even though there was a former chairman of the party who promised that the report on it would be shared. The OBA talks the talk and doesn’t walk the walk on being transparent.”

Mr Blakeney held on to Constituency 13 by just 19 votes in the 2012 General Election.

However, he said he had been limited in his ability to canvass properly due to his heavy workload of a minister and business owner, as well as issues in his personal life.

Mr Rabain, he said, had strong party support behind him during his relatively brief canvassing.

“There has been a continuity of strong workers in that branch, which is responsible for every single election victory since I was there in 2003 — the first time Bermuda went through an electoral process that saw single seats.”