Former MP Allan Marshall was today announced as the United Bermuda Party’s election candidate for Hamilton South.

The 55-year-old banker told a press conference held at John Smith’s Bay that the dismal state of the economy had propelled him back into politics.

“I have been very concerned with the direction that Bermuda is headed,” he said. “Lately, I have become so concerned with our [national] debt having increased fivefold since the Progressive Labour Party has taken government in 1998. This is unsustainable.”

Darius Tucker won constituency seven for the UBP in the December 2007 general election but has since left the party and sits in the House of Assembly as an independent MP.

UBP leader Kim Swan said it was important for constituents in the area to know that the party wanted to represent them.

“I have every confidence in Mr. Allan Marshall’s ability, with the help of his team here in Hamilton South, to return this seat back to the United Bermuda Party, for which the people of Hamilton South voted for in the first place,” he added.

Father-of-two Mr. Marshall was appointed a UBP senator in 1997 under former Premier Pamela Gordon.

He was elected to Parliament as MP for Smith’s North in 1998 but lost his seat in 2003.

He ran unsuccessfully for the UBP in Devonshire North West in the 2007 election, losing to Deputy Premier Paula Cox.

* Full story in tomorrow’s Royal Gazette.