The Progressive Labour Party had to cancel the roll-out of its first election candidate last week — after George Scott refused to be shunted out of his Warwick seat to fight a neighbouring Opposition-held seat.

And it’s understood the embarrassing about-face drew an angry response from Premier Ewart Brown who complained that he had given Mr. Scott an hour to decide whether to fight Warwick West — and Mr. Scott had accepted and then reneged.

However party sources said Mr. Scott had told Dr. Brown that he was skipping his House of Assembly unveiling ceremony — due to go ahead last Friday — as he had originally been selected by the branch in his Warwick North Central Seat and his ousting, in favour of one-term Warwick MP El James, was unconstitutional.

The PLP’s candidate selection process has been changed this time around with branch votes carrying less weight as the views of a five-person candidates selection committee and opinion poll results were also factored in.

It was a process the Premier said would ensure candidates emerged from “a bottom up” process rather than a “top down” process.

However one party insider said the George Scott situation gave the lie to claims by party top brass that the Premier was not involved in the process.

The source said: “All this time he was saying ‘I am hands-off, hands-off. It’s nothing to do with me,’ but it is obviously not a committee choice if the Premier has told George he had an hour to decide.”

Yesterday Mr. James and Warwick North Central branch chairman Anthony Santucci refused to comment on the situation while Mr. Scott could not be reached for comment.

And it was unclear who the PLP will run in Warwick West, held by Opposition MP Neville Darrell by 170 votes last time.

In April Ianthia Wade, the widow of former PLP leader Freddie Wade, was selected to run. She got ten branch votes to five for former Attorney General Larry Mussenden while Dr. Melvin Dickinson, Director of the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Disabled, took no votes.

Despite this Dr. Dickinson was offered the seat by the party hierarchy and accepted — only to change his mind days later and decline. The seat was then offered to Raymond Tannock, who had hoped to instead fight Southampton East Central (seat 30), where he lost out by just 20 votes in 2003 general election to the United Bermuda Party’s David Dodwell.

Mr. Tannock had won nine out of the ten votes from that Southampton branch but was dumped by party bosses for building boss Zane DeSilva. Mr. Tannock then refused to take the Warwick West seat as a consolation prize.

He told The Royal Gazette: “My heart is in 30, that’s where I feel most comfortable. I am working hard in 30 to make sure we get our candidate elected.”

Party sources said the Warwick West seat was then offered to Mr. Scott, who initially took it having lost his Warwick North Central seat to Mr. James — only to have a change of heart in the middle of last week.

One prospective candidate told The Royal Gazette that the whole selection process was totally flawed.

“Take Raymond Tannock — he comes within 20 votes of winning a seat, he’s been in the Senate for the party but then they offer him another seat because he wasn’t doing well in these invisible polls that no one has ever seen. They said George Scott was polling badly — yet he won the seat, he’s the sitting MP. But they removed him. It’s unprecedented. People are getting very annoyed.

“They kicked him to the kerb for someone — El James — who quit politics because he couldn’t be bothered.”

Another candidate said party members wanted the whole lengthy candidate selection saga concluded. “There’s a great irritation from many, many members on the way the whole process has been handled. It’s taking too long, some people feel the branch members are not being respected.”

First elected in 2003 with a healthy 134-vote majority, George Scott, who is the Bermuda Industrial Union’s Chief Organiser, was a vocal supporter of Ewart Brown when he launched his leadership campaign last year. But he was left to languish on the backbenches when Dr. Brown became Premier.

Opinions were split last night about when the election might be called.

One PLP candidate said last week’s planned candidate announcement ceremony proved the party was in election gear.

There was also speculation that the early ending of the parliamentary session — which often runs close to Cup Match was indication the Premier was about to cut and run.

However another PLP candidate said a winter election was likely. Premier Brown has put a lot of time into courting the youth vote but conventional wisdom has it that students start leaving the island in late July and August. However one Opposition MP said United Bermuda Party supporters traditionally travelled after Cup Match so a late summer poll could catch them off-guard and favour the Government.