Dennis Bean, the Independent candidate for the Pembroke East Central by-election, yesterday refused to say whether he had ever used drugs, saying that the question was irrelevant.

"You can ask what you like but I am not going to receive that question," he told this newspaper.

"There is a statement in the scriptures that says when I was a child, I spoke as a child and behaved as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things. There are a number of things I would say and do in the process of moving from babyhood to adulthood or from immaturity to maturity, but there comes a time that just like in a motor car you have to pull the handbrake and say 'hell no we won't go'.

"In other words what I find most men and women need to do is just quite simply grow up. There's no excuse for a lot of the behaviour - the day of blame is over and we need to take responsibility for our actions and apologise quickly and stop it. How else are we going to set an example? That's the key."

The by-election takes place November 26 to replace the late David Allen. Both of the other two candidates, the ruling party's Ashfield DeVent and the Opposition's Leonard Santucci, answered frankly when asked about prior drug use.

But said Mr. Bean: "I don't have to answer that. It's not even relevant."

Mr. Bean, who has just released the first issue of a newsletter on his campaign, views his candidacy as "an awesome opportunity to fulfil my obligations to God, my Country and the people of Pembroke East Central".

His election to the House of Assembly is essential "if people want their views heard", he said. "I stand for moral and Godly principles. You won't get any corruption with me."

Asked the size of his campaign committee, Mr. Bean said: "I have as big a machine as the Progressive Labour Party or the United Bermuda Party."