Six resignations last Sunday may have grabbed the headlines, but the United Bermuda Party also lost a string of key party members in the previous few weeks, it emerged yesterday.

Three of the UBP's ten regional chairpersons quit amid frustration at dysfunction within the party and its failure to turn itself into an election winning force.

The regional chair for Paget resigned in July, the chair for Pembroke went in August and the chair for Smith's left a few days before MPs Shawn Crockwell, Donte Hunt and Mark Pettingill, Senator Michael Fahy, party chairman Sean Pitcher and adopted candidate Wayne Scott quit to form their own party at the weekend.

The UBP's 36 branches — which run in tandem with its ten regions across the Island — are also said to have been depleted for some time, with at least one chair quitting, from Hamilton West, earlier this year.

"The group of six really haven't started anything new by leaving the UBP, but continued the trend which has been underway for a while," one chair who quit told The Royal Gazette.

"I was tired of lip service and no action. I was tired of the party saying one thing and doing something else: chastising Government for certain failures and then doing those same things themselves. The last couple of years, whilst trying to gain voter support, it's not stood for anything on its own. It's basically been: 'We are not the PLP.'

That defector cited the party's lack of transparency as one of its failings, despite leaders repeatedly pointing the finger at the Government for the same shortcoming.

On Wednesday, this newspaper reported up to 20 party members contacted party officers this week to say they wanted to resign, including five in Mr. Crockwell's Pembroke West branch.

We reported branch activity has been next to nothing in the whole of Sandys and parts of Southampton in recent months.

This newspaper has since been trying without success to get an update from the UBP on the number of branches still in operation. By comparison, the Progressive Labour Party's website lists names and phone numbers for all 35 of its branch chairs, adding that it has one vacant position in Paget East.

A UBP spokesperson said last night: "First off, we completely reject the view that the UBP is falling apart internally. Some people have left the organisation while others are stepping forward to take their place. This is part of the ebb and flow of politics; in these instances they may be tied to the 'change' issue but there are also other reasons.

"The UBP is down right now but it will come back stronger. The change process is in train and while some have left in frustration over the pace of change they may well return when all is said and done. People who are enthusiastically writing off the UBP — and feeding the press with information to advance that view — underestimate the party's deep strengths, its talent pool and its restorative powers."

Regarding branch activity, the party says it has men and women ready to support at a moment's notice, with activity increasing at election time.

Meanwhile yesterday, Shadow Finance Minister Bob Richards became the latest high-profile UBP politician to admit the party had been too slow in its reform efforts. Mr. Richards said the defecting trio had not been the only ones pushing for change.

"There are others who are interested in seeing the change go forward whose voices have only been heard internally," he said. "I believe everyone in the party recognises that change is required.

"There's been a great deal of inertia. There's a lot of things we can do to make ourselves more active. We have not told our story for a long time. The attention span of the public is short, as it is everywhere else in the world.

"We spend a lot of our time reacting to Government issues instead of telling people what we stand for. People have forgotten what we are about."

Mr. Richards said he agreed with much of what the defectors said, but not with their call for old faces to be removed, pointing out they had been elected under the UBP banner.