Corporation of Hamilton Alderman Sutherland Madeiros announced plans last night to run for Mayor in the forthcoming city election.

Mr. Madeiros, a long-term term friend of late Mayor Jay Bluck who died on September 1, is the first person to confirm that he will be standing.

Acting Mayor David Dunkley and former Alderman Sonia Grant have previously stated that they are considering throwing their hats in the ring for the ballot, which has yet to be formally called.

Mr. Bluck died of a heart attack at the age of 65 after being in the top job for just four months. He had beaten off competition in April 27's election from Miss Grant, an attorney, and previous Mayor Lawson Mapp, putting him in charge of the city's $20 million annual budget.

Mr. Madeiros, 60, is semi-retired, having previously owned Hamilton retail stores Sportseller and Locomotion and spent 22 years with the Bank of Bermuda. Explaining why he had made the decision to put his name forward, he said he had rejoined the Corporation in April after a six-year break because Mr. Bluck ? his friend of 20 to 30 years ? had urged him to do so.

"He and I shared the same visions and wanted to see the same things accomplished," he said.

Mr. Madeiros, who put in an initial six-year stint at City Hall before his break, listed key priorities as increasing the number of Police on the streets of Hamilton and achieving the long-held goal of a new city-centre hotel.

Mr. Mapp unveiled a controversial $639 blueprint in March to redevelop the waterfront, which included filling in part of the harbour to create new land and moving the container docks away from the city.

In May, Mr. Bluck told "Everybody I've spoken to feels it's much larger scale than it need be. In a way we did that deliberately to stimulate discussion on issues like lack of retail and parking space."

Mr. Madeiros said: "My opinion is that the waterfront development is on hold. There are too many other things we have to deal with. It was way too grand."

He said one of the issues that had to be tackled was the appointment of a new manager for the docks, because the current occupant of the position, Peter Aldrich, is leaving.

He added that he personally favoured keeping the docks in the city, in order to protect a key source of Corporation revenue, or alternatively moving them to the North Shore and expanding the geographical boundary of the Corporation to encompass them.

Mr, Madeiros felt that his semi-retired status would be in his favour if he were to be elected as mayor.

"The mayor's job is a full-time job and I have probably more time to dedicate to it than others," he said.

He anticipates that an election will probably be held in around November, after a period of time designed to allow as many people as possible to join the currently short list of registered voters.

Only 387 residents and business owners are on the register to vote despite there being an estimated 1000 who are eligible. Just 231 turned out to for the last election.

Miss Grant said last night that she was not in a position to make any comment on her own plans. Mr. Dunkley, who as Mr. Bluck's deputy has been in charge of the Corporation since his death, said he would not speak publicly about the election until it is formally called.

Alderman Bill Black welcomed the news about Mr. Madeiros, and said he felt that Mr. Dunkley should run too: "Both have the experience," he said, adding that he would also like to see Miss Grant enter the race.

Mr. Black said he had been asked by a number of people if he would like to stand, but having only been elected 18 months ago he did not think he had been at City Hall long enough.

Asked if he had made a concrete decision not to stand, he said: "I will think about it. It's not been ruled out 100 percent."

Common Councillor Graeme Outerbridge, who contested the mayoral election in 2003, said he had no plans to stand this time.

He said as far as he was concerned the waterfront plans were "very much on the front burner" and that he had not heard about Mr. Madeiros's plans until contacted by .

"I'm quite surprised. He spends a great deal of time off the Island. That could be problematic," he said last night.