The ruling Progressive Labour Party (PLP) has lost another high profile grass-roots supporter with Gerald Fubler's decision to contest the election as an Opposition United Bermuda Party candidate.

Mr. Fubler, 49, is a household name in Somerset because of his community activism in support of the area's youth.

He joined the UBP about a month ago because he was disenchanted with the ruling party, he said.

“I feel that the party in power is not doing its job and plus I'm a concerned citizen and I want to play my part,” he said.

“I have been working with young people for a period of time and I feel all my activities to get them off the streets have failed. It's like they don't care. There's no reason why these guys should be on the street.”

Mr. Fubler recalled that he had managed to force the then UBP Government to provide a centre for the youth at Daniel's Head. “We had to march on parliament to get it, but at least they gave it to us. The PLP took it away, plus they made some very serious promises to us which did not materialise. They said we won't come out of Daniel's Head and two weeks later we were out.”

Like Kenneth Bascome, who defected to the UBP after a row with the PLP leadership, Mr. Fubler had been a PLP supporter for 30 years.

Unlike most politicians, he is widely respected across racial and political boundaries in the West End, for his work among the youth. And in the Somerset area at least he appears to have a definite constituency - everyone The Royal Gazette spoke to either had seen him around or knew of him.

“He's one heck of a good guy, very hard working person and he's really given a lot to the youth of the area,” said 51-year-old liquor store owner Lubin Hill. “He's straightened out a lot of our young people that have run astray. We need more people like that.”

His remarks echoed those of at least a dozen other randomly selected residents.

“I'd like to see crime go down, maybe more things for the young people to do. Better lighting. I'd like to see them clean the walls off these guys that we see across the street.”

PLP Senator Michael Scott expressed surprise at the news and chose his words carefully when asked his reaction.

“It's interesting that Mr. Fubler, a community activist in the late 90s, an apparently grass-roots Sandys activist, has thrown his lot in with the UBP,” the Senator said.

“His objective can only be to continue his community activism under the auspices of a party that is wholly ill acquainted with grass-roots issues, but I suspect that his former sympathies with the PLP, and I believe I'm correct in saying he sympathises more readily with the PLP, and his new sympathies with the UBP is probably due to disaffection with the PLP.

“But I'd have hoped that he would have been just a little patient with the PLP for we could not have achieved all of the aspirations and wishes of people in the first term of office.”

Mr. Fubler does not care too much about party politics - he spent no time waving the UBP banner in a recent interview and says that party politics was a major problem in Bermuda.

He had originally thought about running as an independent but decided that he needed a party behind him for support. The PLP had effectively made the decision for him, he said.

Some PLP supporters have trouble trusting the UBP's motivations towards its black candidates.

“This is the way I look at it. I'm not prejudiced but any black man running for the UBP is like in slavery times, when slaves run away from the plantations the master sends other slaves to get them back,” said Gladwin Ingham, a 48-year-old black man.

“What difference does it make what colour you are?” Mr. Fubler asked. “When you go out in the street, how many white guys do you see hanging out with blacks? A lot. Why should we interfere with that?”

Already Mr. Fubler has had to give up his job as a security officer - a result of hostility arising from his newly found political allegiance, he says.

“When I joined the party I was getting remarks that when I win, that them and I would be enemies. Other remarks like I better be careful about the choices I make,” he said.

“So I said to them if you cannot accept the choices I made then I don't belong here. And it's good because I'm going to use the time to show that I can work hard. Plus I want to be a full-time politician anyway regardless of whether I get in or not.”

He prefers to contest the elections in constituency 36, a likely district for Environment Minister Dennis Lister, but says he believes he can win anywhere in Sandys parish.

“I want to have a voice. I want to be a voice for the young people,” he said. He first started seriously thinking about running after the Tekle Mallory killing two years ago.

“He came to me at Arnold's and said ‘when are we going to get the youth centre up again?'. That's why I feel a little guilty, not that I wasn't fighting, but no one was listening. Who do we blame for that? We could put the blame on a lot of people. I'm saying it shouldn't have gotten that far,” he said.

“Those are my people on the street and if I can't do it outside the House, I want to see if I can do it inside the House.”