reporters can sit in at the polling stations while the votes are counted.

This year, election officials decided no reporters would be allowed. The only way they could get in would be as one of three friends or scrutineers each candidate was allowed to invite.

In Paget East, a reporter for The Royal Gazette found himself the sole person in the counting room on behalf of the Progressive Labour Party. Persistent PLP candidate Mrs. Aurelia Burch invited the reporter in, but said she was not going to stay.

She would like to know how many plumps she received, though. The reporter, feeling a little awkward but happy to be inside for the count, dutifully reported in to Alaska Hall on returning to the newsroom.

* * * Warwick West Independent candidate Mr. David Burch's showing in the election came as no surprise.

Before winning just 23 of 1,932 votes, Mr. Burch was almost stopped from entering the Warwick Secondary School polling station.

As the candidate, dressed in blue jeans, a blue rain jacket and a white hat, approached the station door at the closing of the polls to listen to the vote count, a station officer told him: "Sorry sir the polls are closed''.

A bewildered Mr. Burch replied: "But I'm a candidate!'' "Oh, come in then,'' the embarrassed officer said. "I did not recognise you.'' * * * At UBP headquarters, the biggest cheer of the night was reserved for the Hon.

Maxwell Burgess. He entered the building to a full-throated roar of approval to be greeted by the Hon. Leonard Gibbons, who lifted him off the ground, and swung him round in circles, like a football player who has just scored the winning goal. Mr. Burgess walked through the UBP offices, mobbed all the way, being hugged and squeezed and hugged again, as if he had single-handedly saved the party from ruin.

Politics, like love, must be sweeter the second time around.

* * * Perhaps it was PLP wishful thinking. Independent candidate Mr. Stuart Hayward has always tried to carve a niche between the two parties.

But on Monday, the PLP leader finally claimed him. Those who watched ZBM television saw Mr. Frederick Wade complaining about the media's treatment of "our candidates Stuart Hayward and Eugene Blakeney''.

Oops. Well, at least he did not call Mr. Hayward "Lord Langley''.

* * * Tension ran extraordinarily high at UBP headquarters last night as the faithful awaited the result from Warwick West. MPs and the recently deposed, together with powerbrokers and party workers waited nervously for result from the last constituency to report. Ironically, it was Dr. Ewart Brown of the Progressive Labour Party who gave them the news they were waiting to hear: "I have been elected,'' said Dr. Brown, "but I regret that my running mate ...'' UBP headquarters gave Ewart Brown the biggest cheer he may ever received in his life, and dancing broke out all over the building. The result meant a 22nd seat for the governing party, and with it "some hope we can last the full term'', as one stalwart put it.

* * * Progressive Labour Party candidate Dr. Clark Godwin took an unusual approach to campaigning in Smith's South. Rather than going door-to-door in the conventional fashion, he lured constituents out of their homes with the sounds of Bermuda's gombey dancers.

"I though it was a different way to campaign,'' he said. "I only started campaigning a year and a half ago, and I was able to cover a lot of ground with the gombeys.

"The sound of the gombeys makes people feel good. Everyone seemed to enjoy it with the exception of one woman. I introduced myself and she said she didn't care who I was. She didn't like all the noise.'' * * * While the steady downpour of rain had a dampening effect on voters and candidates alike, the weather created a unique problem for Smith's North United Bermuda Party winning candidate the Hon. Leonard Gibbons.

Mr. Gibbons, who went home to change into fresher -- and dryer -- clothes around 2.30 p.m. yesterday, realised later that he had left his pen in his original set of clothes. So he was forced to scramble in the mud outside the Whitney Institute gymnasium to find a pen underneath the seat of his car so he could count the votes after the polls had closed.

* * * The lady candidates of Warwick East may have polled a paltry 223 votes between them, but Ms Debra Saltus and Mrs. Patricia Gordon-Pamplin put to shame to male candidates and the Police when it came to braving the rain.

All the male candidates went home to step into new suits after they got drenched in the driving rain outside the polling station at Warwick Academy.

Even Police officers on duty changed.

But the ladies, who were encamped under a huge umbrella, stayed put throughout the day.

"I think this proves beyond doubt that women are the strongest and sturdiest sex,'' said Ms Saltus.

* * * A diehard United Bermuda Party supporter was able to cast his vote in the party's stronghold of Paget East last night, despite the fact his British Airways flight did not land until 6.10 p.m.

Mr. George Graydon had his wife Margaret to thank.

Mrs. Graydon had no luck with BA in trying to get quick Airport clearance for her husband.

So she telephoned the Immigration Department at the Airport, where an official agreed every effort should be made to let voters exercise their franchises.

It was arranged that passengers who were registered voters could clear the Airport immediately, then return later to retrieve their baggage and clear Customs.

About three other passengers reportedly benefitted from the arrangement as well.

OCTOBER 1993 ELECTION