The One Bermuda Alliance’s failure to heed the island’s social issues has been criticised by election contender Rodney Smith, who accused the party of ducking cold truths on race, education and economic inequality.

Calling for a brutally honest conversation within the OBA, Mr Smith told The Royal Gazette: “The OBA needs to have a serious conversation about leadership. They keep avoiding issues, and they have just had the most disastrous results in the history of Bermuda.”

The Pembroke South East candidate, who on July 18 garnered 228 votes versus 538 for Progressive Labour Party incumbent Rolfe Commissiong, and 34 votes for independent challenger Elmore Warren, said that a faction within the party had dealt poor advice to Michael Dunkley — and warned that the PLP, which took seven seats off the OBA in the election, was out to take more.

“Imagine the PLP calling the next snap election and removing another four OBA seats,” he said, pointing out that the former premier had run in Smith’s North against “a political novice”, Ernest Peets Jr, and won by 43 votes.

“Dr Peets is out this week canvassing,” he said. “Sylvan Richards won by 21 votes and the PLP is out in that area [Hamilton South]. They have identified key constituencies that are held by the OBA, and they will be back out to annihilate us.”

For Mr Smith, the breaking point was the publication on July 15 of a Global Research poll suggesting a swell of support for the then ruling party.

Conceding that “sometimes polls are like that”, Mr Smith said he had telephoned Mr Dunkley to warn that “something was up. something was wrong” — and that he was assured that “everything was OK” — just ahead of the PLP’s landslide victory. In particular, Mr Smith faulted the OBA’s attitude to the role played by race in major social problems.

“They just turned a blind eye to it. It’s not as if the problem wasn’t staring them in the face.”

He said Dale Butler, a former PLP Cabinet Minister, had addressed the OBA’s own caucus on the urgency of tackling gun violence — but that it had been like “pouring water on to a duck’s back”.

Mr Smith said: “Don’t wait until after the election to say that the problem is about race.”

The late Shawn Crockwell, who left the OBA, was “not the first”, and Ras Mykkal, a one-time OBA candidate who quit the party, was “not the second”.

He added: “There was a whole group of people raising issues, saying that as a government you have the power to address them.”

Mr Smith also ran in Southampton West in the 2012 election, won by the OBA, in which the PLP’s Randy Horton won the constituency by 534 votes to his 330. He declined to state whether he would remain with the party, and said he preferred not to single out individuals when he claimed Mr Dunkley had been “influenced by people who are not in the room, who seem to have a greater voice than people who show up to every meeting”.

Along with Mr Butler, he said gun violence could be traced to the root causes of “race, education and economic inequality”.

Mr Smith said: “No one seems or wants to address those three issues. There’s a disconnect. The white community has not responded, and neither has the black community. Just last week a young black male [Jahcari Francis] got shot, and Bermuda goes on as per normal.”

Mr Smith maintained that from immigration reform to the dispute over a work permit for the Reverend Nicholas Tweed, the OBA had “picked fights where we didn’t need to”.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, who was sworn in on Wednesday, said the party took responsibility for those it had disappointed, and apologised to voters “who we hurt or who felt left out of our policies”.

“Let’s just say they were being told that all along,” Mr Smith responded.

Asked if he believed the OBA needed to rid itself of remnants from the United Bermuda Party, Mr Smith said: “A number of people have served well. We ought to applaud them and appreciate their work; congratulate them, thank them for their service, and invite them to move on. There’s a particular mindset that must be removed.”

Lamenting the party’s lack of a populist touch, Mr Smith said:

“The information we were generating was needed by the people of Bermuda. It means when a Budget was ready, meeting with the Chamber of Commerce and sharing it with them, and also meeting business leaders on Court Street. It means going to the clubs, from the Leopards Club to St George’s Cricket Club — as many venues as possible to see to it that the man in the street had access to the same knowledge. The Sherri J show has thousands of people tuning in every day. You should go on that show as frequently as possible to get the word out, as opposed to saying you’re not going to do it.”

He added: “The party will at some point have to have an honest discussion. But they need to have the vision as to where they see the OBA going.”