on Thursday night shows that she retains strong support among Progressive Labour Party loyalists.

Nonetheless, the fact that a sitting Premier should have faced a challenge from a senior Cabinet Minister and two of the party's nine branches speaks volumes.

Some of Ms Smith's supporters are describing the victory as a mandate and she may well have silenced her critics, at least for now. Had the vote been closer, she might have been weakened to the point that a compromise candidate may have emerged.

That did not happen and Ms Smith looks strong enough to continue.

The question now is how she plans to do that. She may offer an olive branch to the "rebels'' in the parliamentary group who have made their unhappiness clear by giving them more say and involvement in government.

Ms Smith's other option is to "punish'' the rebels and eliminate the opposition within the party. This will be tempting, but dangerous.

Part of the reason Ms Smith was challenged in the first place was because of the perception within the PLP itself that one ruling clique (the United Bermuda Party) had been replaced with another (Ms Smith's circle).

Fair or not, Ms Smith needs to alter that perception and a revenge campaign will not achieve that; indeed, it could drive the most unhappy members out of the party. In the long run that would only benefit the Opposition.

For now, Mr. Hodgson remains the Minister of the Environment. Ms Smith would be wise to keep him there as the first step in pulling together her parliamentary team. Someone like Alex Scott, whose timely statement in support of Ms Smith was key in securing her victory, could be a peacemaker between the two sides.

Ms Smith will also have to be persuaded to give unhappy members, including MPs like Dale Butler and Derrick Burgess, whose estrangement from the leaders of the party is clear even to the blind, a greater voice.

She needs to do this so that her party presents a united front to the electorate. Ms Smith and her supporters also need to remember that a mandate from PLP loyalists is quite different from a mandate from the electorate as a whole. PLP delegates will always vote for the PLP. The swing voters who actually delivered power to the PLP in 1998 are much more fickle.

Recent poll results show the public is dissatisfied with the Premier's style of leadership at the same time that it is relatively happy with the Government's performance. Still, the Government has to be aware that dissatisfaction, once stated, can spread.

Rebuilding public goodwill as the Goverment gets into the meat of its programme with changes to the Constitution and new policies on long term residents will be key.

Ms Smith needs to show that she is prepared to listen to different ideas both inside and outside the party. Whether she does that or not could determine whether she will face another challenge in two years and whether her party will retain its majority in the next General Election.