If the Corporation of Hamilton is doomed, then no one told its voters, who turned out in record numbers for an election in which every seat was contested for the first time in some years.

The vote also marked another kind of first; the election of an entire ticket of candidates running as a team. At the very least, that suggests that the Corporation's officials will be unified when they negotiate with the Government, and that that the horrendous divisions that so hampered the Corporation under former Mayor Sutherland Madeiros will be no more.

That the ticket was also diverse and made up of some of the best candidates the Corporation has seen for some time did no harm either. That's not to say that there were not other good candidates running; Sonia Grant, who has dedicated enormous time and effort to the Corporation, was unfortunate not to be elected Mayor. Kathy Gibbons, the other defeated mayoral candidate, leaves a blueprint for electoral reform that the new Corporation should take up as a matter of urgency. In both cases, their defeats were at the hands of a well organised team. If the Corporation of Hamilton is around for another election, it will likely feature few independents.

That the Gosling ticket swept the board does raise another concern – that the Corporation may move from being paralysed through dissent to there not being enough; a diversity of views can lead to better decision making.

Of course the public will not know whether that's the case or not, because, as of now, the Corporation continues to meet in private. It would do this Corporation enormous good, apart from being the right thing to do now, if it was now to open its meetings to the public.

Those two matters alone will occupy much of the Corporation's time. The biggest issue of all, of course, is Government's plan to abolish the Corporations of Hamilton and St. George's as independent entities.

Mayor Charles Gosling was graceful in accepting Minister without Portfolio Walter Roban's congratulations on his election. But talks about the Corporation's future (Mr. Roban's word, but death in reality) are unlikely to be cordial.

There are arguments for and against the Corporations, and as has been noted previously, Hamilton is on much firmer ground than St. George's, which gave up much of its autonomy when it stopped taxing property owners and accepted a Government grant instead. In any event, St. George's finances have always been much weaker than Hamilton's. So the main fight will be in Hamilton and that Corporation will have its work cut out to make a case both to the Government and to the public in general if it is to survive.

First and foremost it must push reform of the franchise.

Secondly it must be completely open and transparent.

Third, it must make the case that it can run the services the city needs better than Government can.

Fourth, it must make the case that devolution of power and increased democracy, even in an Island as small as Bermuda, is no bad thing; in fact, it may be better than concentrating power in the hands of a very few people.

Those are compelling arguments for the survival of the Corporation. It's up to Mayor Gosling and his team to make them.

l Should the Corporations live on or go? – Pages 6 & 7