Election campaigning has already started as far as the Opposition United Bermuda Party is concerned.

And the party hierarchy say they are prepared to fight the next general elections under either the current electoral system or the new single seat system.

Last year the party made constitutional changes designed to make it more suitable for a single seat system.

But last week, the party announced that Suzanne Holshouser and Lawrence `Rocky' Fox had been approved by the St. George's South party branch as their adopted candidates - suggesting that the UBP felt it likely that the national polls will be held under the current system.

Under the single seat system constituency boundaries will be redrawn to be more equal in size than they are now and each constituency will return only one member to Parliament.

"From our perspective we will be prepared to fight an election under either basis," said UBP leader Dr. Grant Gibbons.

"We will continue to roll out candidates. We've got some great candidates - some have already been announced and I think we've got some very interesting ones that we're talking to and that are waiting in the wings."

And he claimed the election, whenever it is called, would be about the "failure of the Progressive Labour Party".

"They make promises they haven't kept. They have operated behind a veil of secrecy and threats, they are tainted with corruption and self interest, he said.

"They haven't released documents and reports which would have stimulated debate in the public interest. They have been spending people's money like there's no tomorrow, they have driven tourism into the ground as far as I am concerned and they have played the race card on any number of occasions. And I think the country is more divided now than it ever was under the United Bermuda Party."

Asked about the likelihood of the election being called under the current system, Dr. Gibbons said that Premier Jennifer Smith faced a difficult decision.

"She's dealing with personal leadership issues. She's dealing with a party that's sagging in terms of public support, she's dealing with a party which had historically great expectations and has essentially mishandled a number of different issues and not delivered on promises. She's also dealing with the stench of corruption and self interest. So it's going to be a very tough call for her."

He pointed out that the Boundaries Commission, which was given new powers last year to recommend the number of, and boundaries of the revamped system, will likely not finish its report before September and the electoral reform process would not end until well after that.

"If there is an urge on her part to move now to hang on to power, she will have to drop the writ under the current system."

Party chairman Wayne Furbert said that the UBP was definitely in election campaign mode. With no more than 18 months before it must be called, he said: "It would be foolish not to be."

"We've got to be prepared. You've got to remember that this is the first time in history that we've never called an election."

The former UBP Cabinet Minister, who lost his seat in 1998, said that he sensed that the electorate had changed its perceptions and expectations of both political parties.

"People are now looking at both political parties and not basing it on their own historical beliefs - that one party represents one part of Bermuda and the other another part," Mr. Furbert said. "They're looking to see which party would represent all of Bermuda."

The UBP had learned a "huge lesson" from the last election, he said, and they were now making sure that the party's slate of candidates is reflective of the Island's composition.

At least 60 people had passed the party's first stage of candidate selection, he said.

The two main political parties have both faced calls for a leadership change in recent months. Both have down played the significance of the calls, offering instead that the challenges are proof that their organisations are vibrant and democratic.

Dr. Gibbons said that his party was focussed on getting its message out: "A government that is open and accountable, that will listen to people and, I think, a government which will be more interested in providing service rather than reaping rewards for itself. We recognise the importance as we move forward that everyone feels they have a stake in the country and the kind of opportunity to develop in a way that they wish whether it be in business or in their personal life."