Bermuda needs to enter the 21st Century and do away with military conscription, according to the UBP's Pembroke West by-election candidate Jamahl Simmons.

His opponent, Carvel VanPutten, however, said the Regiment was a necessary institution to protect and serve the public in times of natural disasters and other public hazards.

Mr. Simmons, asked for his reaction to the latest controversy over forced conscription into the Bermuda Regiment, stressed that his views were personal and not necessarily those of the UBP.

“Conscription is a backward relic of a bygone era,” he told The Royal Gazette. “The only people doing conscription right now are communist countries and countries in a state of war.”

He said the current system should be replaced with a voluntary system which offered recruits incentives such as free education.

“It's been proven that it does not work by most of the modern nations and I think we are in danger of criminalising people who really have no interest in being in the military.”

Pointing to a ‘ridiculously low' retention rate, he asked ‘do you want to be defended by people who don't want to be there'?

He would not offer any specific comments on the latest case - that of conscientious objector Magnus Henagulph, 26, who was thrown into solitary confinement last week for failing to obey Regiment orders. An earlier appeal to the Regiment's Exemption Tribunal failed but Mr. Henagulph's case is now before the courts and could spell the death knell for conscription in Bermuda.

“In the Constitution the only people allowed to be forced to do labour are criminals and the military,” Mr. Simmons said. “Let's get into the 21st Century and give people an incentive to be there...If you give people an education and an opportunity to improve themselves you would have enough recruits.”

Mr. Simmons said he had served his time in the military, but was reluctant to go public with his thoughts of the experience.

“I am not a military person,” he said. “When recruited I was in my late 20s. This was not a priority.”

UBP deputy leader Erwin Adderley said that the party did not have a position on whether the law on conscription should be changed.

“I don't know if we've canvassed one another on this matter,” he said. “But it is the law and should be obeyed.”

Mr. Simmons is the UBP's candidate for the Pembroke West by-election which takes place February 6.

“I was a member of the Regiment - I played in the Band,” Mr. VanPutten said.

His hope was that the Regiment could be restructured to reflect Bermuda's maritime environment. “We're more water than land,” he argues.

“A lot of things you do in life need to be compulsory,” said Mr. VanPutten, adding that the Regiment's functions had to do with more than war.