The electoral battle for Warwick constituencies is slowly shaping up with the news that former United Bermuda Party (UBP) Senator and Cabinet Minister Bob Richards has thrown his hat back into the political ring.

So far it looks as if ruling party backbencher Dale Butler will be squaring off against the UBP's Mark Pettingill for the Warwick North East seat.

Yvette Swan (UBP) will be back to contest the new Warwick West against House Speaker Stanley Lowe if the latter does not retire from politics.

And Works and Engineering Minister Alex Scott will be nominated to contest the Warwick South East seat and he will probably be running against Bob Richards, according to informed sources.

Mr. Richards and his running mate Larry Scott contested the elections in the old Warwick East, but were soundly defeated by Mr. Scott and Mr. Butler.

And Ewart Brown and Elvin James, the PLP team in neighbouring Warwick West, also triumphed over their opponents Yvette Swan and former Cabinet Minister Quinton Edness, turning the entire parish into a PLP stronghold.

But that was under the dual seat system of unequal sized constituencies. There are now five equally sized single seat districts in Warwick under the reconfigured system - Numbers 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28. Or Warwick South East, North East, South Central, North Central and West respectively. Ruling party backbencher Elvin James is reported to change his mind from one day to the next about whether he wants to contest the poll at all. But if he does, he will most likely be nominated to Warwick North Central (Number 27), while Transport Minister Ewart Brown will take on the safer (for the Progressive Labour Party) Warwick South Central, or Number 26.

Optician Yvette Swan who represented the old Warwick West and was a Cabinet Minister in the old UBP Government has been asked by her party to come back. She wouldn't tell The Royal Gazette her favoured constituency, preferring instead to trot out the party line of "wherever the party thinks is best".

Dr. Swan lives on Warwick Park Lane and has a few years canvassing in the area under her belt and would probably want to stick to her home turf and ask to be nominated to the new Warwick West (Number 28). Wholly within the parish, Warwick West takes in Tamarind Vale, much of the Spice Hill Road area and the Riddell's Bay area. Warwick Lane, Sun Valley Road and Stadium Lane are some of its borders.

Unlike the other politicians contacted, Dale Butler was eager to talk about his canvassing in his area.

He told The Royal Gazette that he had heard that the UBP was preparing to spend a lot of resources ensuring that his opponent wins a seat in the House but he did not think Mr. Pettingill had a decent shot against him in the coming election.

The former school headmaster scored more votes than any other MP in the 1998 election.