The ruling Progressive Labour Party has voted not to change its rules back to a scheduled leadership challenge every two years.

The PLP delegates conference debated the proposal but decided to stick with scheduled elections every four years — a system it picked back in 2002.

Under Jennifer Smith, who faced several attempts to remove her, a change was made to double the period of fixed elections for the leader and deputy leader.

In the lead up to this week's debate some party insiders had claimed the 2002 change had been made to secure Ms Smith's job.

However one senior party source said delegates had taken a mature decision which allowed for more stability — although leadership challenges could still be triggered by the branches or the central committee.

The source said: "I think it is a good thing. We had a conference accept this five years ago, why is it wrong now?

"These leaderships are quite exhausting for the membership and four years is a good term to get things done or not."

He denied the 2002 rule change had been done to shore up Ms Smith however one MP told The Royal Gazette the leaders should be prepared to stand for re-election on more frequent intervals to ensure they didn't get complacent.

The PLP have had three leaders in four years.

Sitting Premier Jennifer Smith was forced out when her MPs rebelled against her after the 2003 election and she was replaced by Alex Scott who was then successfully challenged by his deputy Ewart Brown for the leader's post in 2006.

By keeping the status quo the chances of Deputy Premier Paula Cox being pushed forward to make a challenge have diminished said one PLP insider who said she was not to type to conspire with branches to spark a leadership fight.