Sunday marks the tenth anniversary of the Progressive Labour Party's historic first election victory. Here senior parliamentarian Alex Scott, who worked as campaign manager, MP and finally Premier recalls how the PLP moved from the electoral wilderness to becoming the new political elite.

Alex Scott was a nervous man ten years ago as he waited for the votes to be counted in Warwick East.

While PLP supporters believed their time was coming, Mr. Scott, who had been the party's campaign chairman for most of its elections before 1998, had seen plenty of false dawns.

"Having been in so many general elections before, I remained apprehensive that, yes, it will come to us another time but this one too could slip away."

So he stayed put in the Presbyterian church hall until the returning officers had pronounced he and running mate Dale Butler had romped home.

"I didn't know until I came out of that room that the PLP really had won, I think a reporter told me. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment, one that had escaped us for 30-something years.

"It is hard to describe – I can't describe it as a feeling of elation, it was disbelief almost, that suddenly the moment that we had all been working so hard for had arrived.

"I couldn't wait to get to Central to enjoy and experience the most extraordinary celebration."

He didn't shed tears – those came the next day when a Party colleague told him about leaving the celebration on Court Street in the early hours and stopping off on the way home to visit the resting place of her late father – a staunch PLP supporter through the early, difficult days.

"She said in the night, in the graveyard 'Father, you may not know but your Party has won, the Party you have supported all your life.'

"That brought tears to my eyes when she made that speech to us – that summed up all the commitment of many who had gone on to meet their reward."

There had been plenty of set-backs during the decades-long march to power.

As a confidante of Dame Lois Browne Evans, Mr. Scott had marvelled how she could rally the troops moments after yet another crushing defeat.

"I had watched her on so many occasions accept the disappointment of a loss at the polls – general election or by-election.

"Then out of nowhere she would summon up the courage and elequence to go before our obviously disappointed supporters and just lift them up out of despair.

"She would say 'We came close' – and we could have been a mile away – but when she finished she sounded more like we had won than we had lost.

"It was her mentoring, it was her stamina and her continual belief in the PLP that sees us here now."

But Mr. Scott has no doubt that Dame Jennifer Smith was the chief architect of the PLP's 1998 victory.

"Despite the subsequent developments to her leadership she was the individual for that time and moment. You needed a strong hand. This was the PLP's first time in office.

"You needed someone to grab the party, the parliamentarians, and even the machinery of Government itself, by the scruff of the neck and put a stamp of authority on it. She was the right person at the right time."

Mr. Scott said the PLP's move to the centre of politics took time as he and other party spin doctors made sure candidates stuck to a script.

"Each general election we would pick up a few more seats by managing the image of the Progressive Labour Party. We moved from the far left, to the centre, to today where we are the political establishment."

The transition to power wasn't tough for Mr. Scott who said Works and Engineering Permanent Secretary (PS) Stanley Oliver walked him through the job.

"I realised in hindsight the PS was more in charge of running the Ministry than I was. Very responsibly he was showing me the ropes.

"My approach as Minister and Premier was to work with the Civil Service, not against them. I found them to be supporters, not detractors.

"Yes, there have been issues and circumstances folks will argue could have been handled differently but there have been historical accomplishments – under Dame Jennifer, one-man, one-vote."

Some might argue the new single-member constituencies, set up for the 2003 Election and used again in 2007, have not levelled the playing field but simply tipped it in another direction – now the UBP get only 38 percent of the seats despite pulling in nearer 50 percent of the vote.

But Mr. Scott said: "At first blush it would look as if the UBP are disadvantaged now because they won 47 percent of the vote yet they ended up with 14 members but now it is founded and grounded on an equal playing field.

"What the UBP have that the PLP didn't have is an equal shot at winning the Government."

But it was not the weakened and divided UBP, which has been led by five different leaders during the last decade, which has proved most politically challenging during the PLP's time in power – very often the real danger came from supposedly fraternal colleagues.

Despite her election heroics Ms Smith was challenged by Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson at the PLP conference of 2000 but survived comfortably.

Mr. Hodgson paid the price of taking on Dame Jennifer and was sacked from the Cabinet within days, while Ewart Brown, who had challenged Eugene Cox for the Deputy Leader's post, kept his job as Transport Minister.

But the complaints about Dame Jennifer's micro-management style remained and at a caucus meeting in May 2002, backbench MPs tried to force Dame Jennifer to step down as Leader. But the vote was tied 9-9 and the Premier survived.

Despite the rumblings Mr. Scott said he had no clue his ally was under threat going into the 2003 Election.

"I can remember returning excitedly from Warwick, this was the second time. I went to the PLP headquarters as we were expected/required to do. There she sat like a school ma'am, ticking off the names of the MPs as we came in.

"I thought this was different although I didn't quite say 'Present, ma'am'. Then another MP arrived, who I won't name, and she said 'Well, surprised to see you here!'

"And then I realised that there was the possibility of a challenge to her leadership. Immediately it became a sober moment and the old campaign manager in myself took over and I began to provide advice as to how I thought we should proceed in managing the moment.

"It was critical. I thought we could not at one moment win the support of the Country and in the next moment be seen to have this severe cleavage right down the middle of our parliamentary group and have that be the headline that went out, not only to Bermuda but to the world the next day."

The rebels demanded Dame Jennifer come to meet them, but the Premier insisted they should come instead to her so the stand-off continued.

The rebels – all male – were Transport Minister Ewart Brown, Health Minister Nelson Bascome, Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister, Environment Minister Dennis Lister, Deputy Speaker Walter Lister, Youth and Sports Minister Randy Horton, Government Whip Ottiwell Simmons, Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess, backbenchers Dale Butler and Wayne Perinchief, and newly-elected MP George Scott.

MPs had complained of Dame Jennifer's autocratic, secretive and nepotistic leadership style and said they had been kept in the dark about the timing of the Election, CARICOM membership, the manifesto (released just three days before the Election) and constitutional change.

"So that evening's celebration, the going out to the public, had to be choreographed. And the leaders had to be seen to be in charge and be quite elated."

Mr. Scott said Dame Jennifer pulled it off with aplomb, even as the rug was being pulled from underneath her by rebelling colleagues.

The next day the embattled Premier, who had held her own seat by just eight votes, held a press conference at Cabinet Office. Mr. Scott only learned of it by chance while he was belatedly renewing his car licence.

"I was down at TCD and someone said 'There is a press conference going on at Cabinet'. I thought 'Really, that's nice'. I made my way unhurriedly to Cabinet because no one had told me.

"I got there in time to join in and that's when I think the Premier was making new assignments."

That short-lived Cabinet, cut from 13 members to eight, saw ministries merged in what many saw as a desperate measure.

Mr. Scott was given Health, Education Minister Paula Cox also became Attorney General and took on Sport and Culture while pledging to keep her legal job in the private sector. David Burch took on the Ministry of Home Affairs and dropped Housing.

Renee Webb kept Tourism, Telecommunications and E-Commerce, Neletha Butterfield took on the Ministry of Infrastructure. But there was no one to take on the new Ministry of Land, Air and Sea, which comprised most of the old Ministry of Transport, but also the departments of Planning, Conservation Services, Environmental Protection and Land Valuation from Environment.

The Premier admitted she had offered Cabinet posts to some rebels but they had rebuffed her and stuck to their guns.

The plan was to swear in the new Cabinet the following Monday but a crisis meeting of PLP delegates that night urged the MPs to sort out their affairs.

The depth of the split was memorably encapsulated by The Royal Gazette front page which had a picture of each of the 11 rebels and each of the 11 loyalists, the two camps lined up more like opposing football teams than political allies who had just fought an election together.

One option was to have another general election which would have been spelled disaster, said Mr. Scott. "We would have been soundly defeated if we had gone back to them having just won, they would have thought we were crazy."

A Saturday meeting brokered by Roosevelt Brown, which Mr. Scott said was cordial, saw Ms Smith pushed out.

"I think her view at that time was the only person she would step down for was myself."

There was an agreement for a leadership vote for the next day at Devonshire Rec.

Mr. Scott triumphed over Ewart Brown who irritated delegates with his 'We had to mislead you' speech as he tried to explain away the decision of MPs to dump Dame Jennifer after she had won the Election.

To enhance unity, Deputy Leader Eugene Cox stood aside to let Dr. Brown take his place.

Mr. Scott said he helped bring the Party together during his time in the Cabinet Office, even though he was later turfed out when Dr. Brown successfully challenged for the leadership in 2006.

And Mr. Scott is proud of the ombudsmen, social agenda and sustainable development initiatives begun under his tenure. Meetings on Independence stirred little interest, but he has no regrets.

"When I went into office I had very, very high poll numbers – up around 75 or 80 percent, support of both black and white.

"Rather than sit on my political capital I decided to use that to introduce ideas and notions I think in time will serve us well."

Being ejected from office by your own colleagues can hurt, but Mr. Scott is philosophical.

"I think I am more popular out of office than I am in. Once you are out, folks are little bit more kind."

And he is proud of what his party has proved since 1998.

"I think the PLP changed the political environment in Bermuda for ever.

"The PLP had gone in with no prior experience at running the Government but if you had an election tomorrow the PLP would win."