Dennis Bean, the independent candidate for the Pembroke East Central by-election, yesterday apologised to any of the advance poll voters he will not be able to contact before they cast their ballots on November 19.

And he promised that he will be talking to the Bermuda public in the "not too distant future".

"I want to apologise in advance to the people I am not able to reach prior to the advance poll... I know there may be a number of people off the Island so I would like to apologise to them," he said.

"At the appropriate time I will host a press conference so that the print media and the telecommunications media are duly informed. At the moment I have no specific comment on any single issue so bear with me as I continue to, by the grace of God and in all due consciousness and fairness, go ahead and do what is necessary to present to everybody and in Pembroke East Central in particular my ideas and intentions."

Mr. Bean, a born-again Christian, made his statement after being pressured by this newspaper to answer a series of questions.

He and Ashfield DeVent declined an invitation by Bermuda Broadcasting Company to participate in a 60 minute televised debate. Mr. DeVent said that he would rather spend the limited time before the November 26 poll to canvass the constituents.

Mr. Bean, who made a surprise appearance to be nominated as an independent candidate last week, has not given any reasons for not participating in the debate.

"I won't allow the news media or my opponents to coerce me into rash judgments and decisions," he said when asked whether as a candidate for public office he did not have a responsibility to communicate with the public.

"I am asking the public to be patient and it has been my experience that the other two parties have spoken a lot and loud over the years and have been found wanting. They have come up short. So I will be speaking sometime in the very near future on issues such as drug use and/or abuse, the doctor-insurance debacle and a lot of issues relative to the educational system and labour relations.

"I will speak to a lot of that stuff eventually. But for the moment praise God and pray much for myself as well as for the other candidates."