Paget East is about as safe a United Bermuda Party seat as there is and party leader Grant Gibbons should win the constituency easily.

The seat takes in the large houses on Harbour Road from Trimingham Hill west cutting into South Road and Ord Road and Southcourt Avenue, along the south shore to Honey Hill Drive and Harvey Road.

The old Paget East lost a section from Tee Street, Devonshire, and has moved west to take in more blue collar and black areas, but constituency 22 is still a wealthy majority white seat.

Dr. Gibbons, who represented the old Paget East seat with a majority of more than 600, said the main issues were crime health care for seniors.

But his Progressive Labour Party opponent Delaey Robinson - who admits he is not up to speed on the local issues yet - said the vote should be a referendum on Dr. Gibbons and the UBP. He said the old UBP had not changed, and Dr. Gibbons represented the old power. The economy had flourished under the PLP, and voters should give it another chance to continue the success story, said Mr. Robinson.

Dr. Gibbons said local issues were the need for a sidewalk for patients and visitors on Point Finger Road, a bus shelter across from Coral Beach, and concern about local youngsters and those from elsewhere gathering late at night on Tribe Road number 5.

"Locally, the issues I'm picking up are the same ones as nationally. Concern for seniors and providing better safety on the pension side and on healthcare," said Dr. Gibbons.

"We've talked a lot about the seniors clinic we're proposing and we are getting strong positive feedback, and there is the need for better coverage for prescription drugs, and seeing if we can extend the Health Insurance Programme.

"The issue of safety and crime has been talked about a lot as has community policing, and that would be very effective in Ord Road. I am cautiously optimistic and we are getting a good response out there to suggest we will be successful, but we never take anything for granted."

Former St. George's South MP Mr. Robinson said: "It is not about me, it is about Grant Gibbons. It is an opportunity for me to tell not just the constituents of 22, but the people of Bermuda to be careful because Bermuda has gone through a very slow social and political evolution.

"We are still talking about race and we should be over that but it is still here because it has been perpetrated by the oligarchy of old for the purpose of retaining power. They needed the kind of policies to discourage the majority population from going to the polls, or if they did, to make them scared to death of not voting for the oligarchy.

"It would be madness to go back to that and we would be going back to that with the likes of Grant Gibbons because they have not had the opportunity to readjust and really become the new UBP. They are by no means the new UBP. They are going about like the new UBP but in the old UBP's clothes.

"It is the same rule by myth and we are seeing the same old myths coming out and the same old ways of doing things and they have been successful at doing it. I really think it would be a huge mistake, not just for PLP supporters, but also those people who support the UBP and care about Bermuda.

"There's no way the UBP would take us back to the bad old days but they are continuing the bad old days' philosophy. They haven't really reinvented themselves and if they really were the new UBP they would give us something to fight about. "The health of Bermuda depends on having the kind of government that's not too close to business. Business thrives when it is encouraged to get on with it as opposed to having a government that is in business trying to feather its own nest.

"When you look at all the economic indicators, we are doing extremely well and you can tell this by the amount of criticism from the UBP on the economy i.e. there's none. "Bermuda is doing very well thank you, as is the business community. If Paget East is going to vote with an eye on its pocket, then it should be wary of voting for Grant Gibbons. I think we will give them quite a showing. We thought our support would be quite slender, but there is a good chance that we'll do way better than we first thought."