For me, the recent election was the most interesting that I have ever witnessed during Bermuda's 40-year history of party politics.

In my view, the PLP Special Delegates' Conference came of age during this election and not a moment too soon. I believe that both the victory by the Progressive Labour Party and the smooth handling of the subsequent leadership change demonstrated a maturity by the Delegates Conference that I never thought I would see in my lifetime.

The PLP won a second term despite an expensive and comprehensive attack by the United Bermuda Party. Clearly, if winning was directly related to campaign expenditure, the PLP would have been lucky to win even one seat. The UBP launched a cavalcade of full page print ads, long TV presentations including most if not all their candidates, and a near monopoly of the advertising space on everybody's favourite soap opera, "Young and the Restless". And perhaps remembering Ms Webb's famous reference to "People who look like me", the UBP made certain that the adverts were liberally sprinkled with pictures of people who bore a strong resemblance of the majority population.

If they had been selling toothpaste, the UBP would have had a major success. However, most Bermudians were not interested in toothpaste, they wanted equality of opportunity and they believed that this could only be achieved through the re-election of the Progressive Labour Party. Hence, not only did most of the electorate largely ignore the ads, but the PLP won handily despite serious disorganisation with respect to the campaign.

It was clear to all participating on behalf of the PLP that the election had been called without the PLP having its ducks in a row. In fact, with less than a month to go before Election Day, the PLP "had not even selected all of the ducks". Further, all candidates were being interviewed by a Candidates Committee despite the fact that many of them had been MPs or Senators during the recent sitting of the House and Senate. This procedure had an impact on the canvassing programme. Not only did it eat into valuable canvassing time but new candidates (and some old ones) could not canvass on their own behalf for fear that they would not be selected as a candidate after having announced their candidacy before being selected by the candidates committee.

When the PLP finally got into the field as candidates, it soon became apparent that dissatisfaction with the leadership of Premier Jennifer Smith was widespread. A frequent comment was: "The first order of business after you guys win the election must be to get rid of the Leader." For my own part, I sang the praises of the Premier and her hard work and the fact that she had been a victim of a vicious media campaign. This approach met with some success simply because the PLP voter base has a deep-seated distrust of Bermuda's print and electronic media.

Still, it was not easy to determine the rationale for the widespread distrust. Although many people expressed the view that Ms Smith's removal should be the first order of business after the PLP had won the election, this conclusion left many to wonder: "How could the Premier be such a poor leader if both PLP and UBP supporters were certain that the PLP would win yet both also were adamant that Ms Smith could be removed." I could find no reason for this strange logic than nor can I understand it almost a week after the event.

The struggle for leadership which followed the election will have to go down in the Guinness Book of Records as perhaps the only time in history that a leader of a democratic state won an election by a significant majority and immediately after winning was forced to resign. How did the membership get such a positive opinion of the PLP but not of its leader?

If truth be told, the public did not have such a positive opinion of the PLP. However, those members of the public who supported the PLP generally felt that it was no way that they were going to return the UBP to power after only five years of political liberation. To the black majority, who are very religious, a return to the UBP was reminiscent of the Jews returning to Egypt after God had taken them out of bondage. Rev. Wilbur Lowe made this analogy and was immediately taken to task by UBP candidate Rev. Leonard Santucci. However, the Lowe interpretation prevailed.

Despite the shock of the rebellion of the 11 Members of Parliament, the members of the PLP Delegates Conference endorsed Ms Smith's resignation and appointed Alex Scott in her place by acclamation. For those of us who attended the Friday meeting at Devonshire Recreation Club and witnessed the anger and frustration that was present, found the turnaround of the delegates on Sunday evening as nothing short of miraculous. Without submitting to the strength of passionate argument by the aspirants to the leadership of the party and their supporters, the delegates selected by acclamation Alex Scott as Leader and Premier designate and Dr. Ewart Brown as Deputy Leader and Deputy Premier-designate.

I have never seen a more popular result in these kinds of party conflicts. The delegates had come of age at a time when the sound management of their party was never more crucial. The PLP needs to take Bermuda to another level and political maturity is an essential ingredient to their success. At the new level, four things must be accomplished:

1. Within the PLP party structure, the constitution must be revised to prevent the need for open rebellion in order to effect a change in leadership.

2. Members of Parliament must become totally involved and in full communication with Branch Executives so that impending changes in policy, legislation or parliamentary personnel will always be made with the best interests of the Party and Bermuda in mind.

3. Strategies need to be developed that permit economic development only if it results in an improved standard of living for all Bermudians.

4. Racial consideration must be eliminated as a basis for economic, social or political development.

These are some of the major issues facing both the PLP and Bermuda. It is of considerable comfort for me and others that the PLP branches have shown that they are ready to meet the task ahead with courage and integrity.

@EDITRULE:

Calvin J.M. Smith was a Government Senator in the last Parliament and ran for the House of Assembly for the PLP in Pembroke West in the General Election.