A confident Jennifer Smith formally introduced her party's first six confirmed candidates for the coming election, including herself, at a press conference yesterday.

The ruling party had “delivered impressively” on its platform promises, she said, and will campaign on its record.

And she accused the Opposition United Bermuda Party of damaging Bermuda's reputation as a stable democracy, with scare tactics.

The Progressive Labour Party had improved Bermuda's democracy and maintained a healthy climate for foreign and local businesses, she said.

All of the candidates unveiled yesterday were Cabinet Ministers and the announcement of their districts contained no surprises.

Ms Smith was surrounded by her fellow candidates - Works Minister Alex Scott, Finance Minister Eugene Cox, Environment Minister Dennis Lister, Labour Minister Terry Lister and Transport Minister Ewart Brown - at the Alaska Hall press conference. All said they were confident of victory.

“Over the next few weeks, PLP candidates and campaign workers will remind the Bermudian electorate of our record, “ Ms Smith said.

“The PLP has delivered despite unrelenting pressures, both external and internal.”

She heaped scorn on widespread speculation, fuelled by media reports and the Opposition party, about her party's intentions over the last few weeks.

“Since Parliament was prorogued two weeks ago, we have kept a disciplined silence but there has been no lack of opinions about what the PLP is going to do, who our candidates are, and how our campaign is unfolding,” she said.

“It seems like everybody knows what we are going to do, while complaining that they don't know what we are doing.

“The media has certainly seen its share of outlandish pronouncements, from the one that had me honoured by the Queen and returning as a Dame, to the one that had me deserting my home constituency after 32 years.”

“Opposition elements” were fighting a “political battle” with “verbal weapons that they hope will wreak destruction to the Progressive Labour Party”.

“Unfortunately much more damage is done to Bermuda's image as a stable, democratic jurisdiction. I thought that in the third year of the new millennium, we would see the new UBP engage in new tactics,” she continued.

“However, once again, before an election, they are claiming, without naming one example, that businesses are pulling out of Bermuda because of the six-year - actually it' s a nine year - cap on work permits. In dramatic contrast to such scare tactics, one international corporation is planning to invest in local real estate in order to accommodate non-Bermudian personnel who will be operating in Bermuda.”

She said the same scare tactics had been employed in the lead-up to the 1998 election but that her Government had “put the lie to that” and provided expanded economic opportunity, “improved government services, turned tourism around, and returned a spirit of optimism to Bermuda”.

“Foreign capital has expanded. Local businesses are prospering,” the Premier continued.

“Our country has clearly reached a new level of political maturity during the PLP's first term as Government with Bermuda's historic first General Elections with ‘one man, one vote' and single seat constituencies.”