General Election was a strong mood among Bermuda's blacks that the United Bermuda Party Government believed a "black party'' could not run the Country.

The PLP tapped black pride on that issue and urged voters to reclaim their Country, even equating an Opposition victory with emancipation from slavery.

The UBP was late in trying to counter the tactic. But for a steady rainfall and a superior UBP election-day machine, the PLP would likely have claimed enough seats to form its first Government.

No pat answers can explain the results of Tuesday's vote, party officials agree.

Some elections are easy to decipher because voters react for or against a single party, often based on a campaign issue that is readily identified.

But different dynamics were at work in different constituencies on October 5.

The PLP was the net winner, but both it and the UBP suffered losses and made gains.

Crushed, the National Liberal Party was the big loser. But it only had one seat to begin with. And it ran only eight candidates, so the collapse of the NLP does not unlock the election's meaning.

The UBP lost three MPs, including two Cabinet Ministers. But it also gained two seats in Hamilton West and one in Pembroke West Central. It held its share of the popular vote at 50 percent and emerged with as many MPs as when Parliament was dissolved, yet still came out a loser.

Its new majority of 22-18 is more precarious than the previous formula of 22 UBP, 15 PLP, two Independent, and one NLP MPs.

Hamilton East was a constituency where the race card was a major issue, and some believe the mood that gripped voters originated in a September speech delivered there at the PLP's first campaign rally.

Mr. Julian Hall, who would lose his bid for re-election in Hamilton West, was referring to whites when he told the black crowd that "they'' were "frightened of us.

"They don't like how we whip up emotions,'' Mr. Hall said. "They don't like how we have an answer for everything they say. They also don't like the fact, and let's be honest about it, that the old Bermudian is dying off. That old step and fetch it routine is gone.

"That old belief that the white man's ice is always coldest, that any black institution is somehow riddled with incompetence.

"As far as they're concerned, theirs is a monopoly on the ownership of Bermuda.

"I want Bermuda to be free as South Africa is free,'' Mr. Hall said.

"I want Bermuda to be run by Bermudians for Bermuda. Is anything wrong with that?'' Mr. Hall added.

Similar comments were made in PLP canvassing. Mr. Alex Scott, the PLP campaign co-chairman, said the race card was not part of the party's campaign strategy but arose in response to repeated UBP assertions that the PLP could not run the Country.

Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan inferred that the PLP was "a bunch of incompetents,'' Mr. Scott said. And it was felt Warwick West candidate the Hon. Quinton Edness spoke "in code'' when he said the appearance of PLP election posters was "the kind of thing that you see in the inner cities of America.'' In both cases, the UBP speaker was black, but it was felt they were "the mouthpieces of others, who happen to be the establishment, who happen to be white,'' Mr. Scott said.

Late in the campaign, the UBP realised the extent to which racial feelings were stirred. Sir John addressed it head-on in a speech at St. George's four days before the vote.

The PLP was spreading the "insidious rumour'' that the UBP was saying the PLP could not manage Bermuda because it was a black party, Sir John said. "That is a terrible accusation,'' he said. "I am black.

"The issue is not a black and white issue. The issue is who is most capable of running Bermuda based upon a track record.'' The Premier again tackled the subject two days later, even taking a reporter aside to stress the importance of his remarks. "For the PLP to say that this election is being fought over the proposition that blacks cannot govern ignores the central fact that blacks are governing Bermuda and are governing successfully,'' he said.

To what extent the issue affected the overall income is difficult to pinpoint, but UBP officials saw it as decisive in Hamilton East, an 85 percent black constituency where the PLP's Mr. Trevor Woolridge and Ms Renee Webb outpolled white lawyer Mr. Wendell Hollis and black telephone executive Mr. Francis Furbert of the PLP.

"We failed to recognise the racial undertones down there,'' a UBP official said.

It likely also made a difference in the loss of UBP Cabinet Ministers in Warwick East and Warwick West, where an influx of black voters since 1989 had changed the demographics in two already-tight constituencies.

The issue also contributed to the the sharp rise in PLP support Island-wide, to 46.4 percent from 37 percent in 1989. The Independent and National Liberal Party vote collapsed, with much of the NLP vote going to the PLP. And both parties agreed that young people voted mainly PLP.

Mr. Scott also cites the build-up created by the party's decision to withhold its platform until one week before the election, and a tactical decision to save PLP resources until the campaign began, despite a barrage of pre-campaign advertising by the UBP.

He felt the PLP did a good job of getting its vote out in dismal weather, but the UBP got "101 percent'' of its voters to the polls. To win, "that's the kind of discipline we'll have to get,'' he said.

The only seats the PLP lost were two in Hamilton West. That reflected a combination of poor constituency work by incumbents Mr. Hall and Mr. Eugene Blakeney, and a gigantic effort by UBP candidates the Hon. Maxwell Burgess and Mr. Wayne Furbert, who worked the constituency for years.

The PLP's gain of a second seat in St. George's North and strong showing in St. George's South was attributed to the cruise ship issue, general dissatisfaction with East End treatment by Government, and youth support.

In Pembroke West Central, where the UBP gained a seat, the vote reflected a return of traditional UBP voters who supported Independent Mr. Stuart Hayward in 1989. Realisation of the closeness of the election combined with concerns about Mr. Hayward's effectiveness.