Ambitious plans to supplant the United Bermuda Party as Bermuda's second party are being hatched by political activist Khalid Wasi.

He says backers have pledged a six-figure sum to help the venture which he hopes will break the mould of racial politics still distorting Bermuda's political landscape.

The initiative has been spawned out of the Bermudians for Referendum group although he was reluctant to name supporters.

He said: "At this stage it is just a feasibility study. Bermuda cannot handle a third party, the NLP proved that, but the two parties are at an impasse."

He predicted forums on the subject in the new year.

The United Bermuda Party would now struggle to ever replace the PLP as Government, said Mr. Wasi, despite disaffection with the current PLP administration.

A similar party switch had happened in the Bahamas where the conservative United Bahamian Party was supplanted by a new force, the Free National Movement, after losing elections to the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), said Mr. Wasi.

He said both Bermuda parties were rooted in the race divide as could seen by Government Sen. David Burch's recent outburst about "house n***ers" and discussion by the UBP about getting a black leader to "make a white party look black".

He added: "This is all synonymous with past eras."

But he hopes behind-the-scenes manoeuvres can avoid a messy election with the new party splitting the vote.

"We are talking to some significant people," he said. "We are trying to court the UBP out of existence but we are courting people from all sides."

He declined to say if he had any backing from Opposition parliamentarians but added: "At the end of the day it will come down to that."

The new group, provisionally called the All Bermuda Congress, would champion constitutional changes giving voters greater rights at the expense of elected politicians.

More issues would be put to plebiscites or referendums rather than being left for MPs to decide. Similar systems were used in Switzerland and California, said Mr. Wasi.

UBP spokesman Jamahl Simmons said he welcomed the efforts of anyone who wanted to serve the Country but he knew of no-one in the UBP who was about to jump ship.

He said: "I know I am not going anywhere."