In Southampton West, the most seasoned of the three candidates again failed to win a seat, yet walked away happier than his two successful opponents.
Nearly 82 percent of the 1,715 registered voters returned outgoing Premier Pamela Gordon and former Tourism Minister David Dodwell to the House of Assembly, but not before seeing support rise for lawyer and PLP stalwart Michael Scott -- running for the third time.
Even though there were just three candidates vying for two seats, most electors either voted for two UBP candidates, or only for the one PLP candidate.
A tired Pamela Gordon emerged from the count about 9.30 p.m. after topping the polls at 802 votes -- exactly the same as five years ago.
She commented: "Usually, you get some people splitting votes. But that rarely happened tonight.'' When advised of early indications of PLP success, she conceded there always was a chance her party could lose.
"What you are looking at,'' she said, "is the issue of emotion and the emotion of a 30-year-old Government. And they have put into the equation the issue of the race card. They were saying that it was time for a black government and not acknowledging that there are blacks in the UBP Government.
"And that is the UBP concern, the issue of divisiveness. You have blacks in the UBP who are in control of the Government, but the PLP are saying that blacks are not in control unless they are in the PLP.'' When Ms Gordon and Mr. Dodwell were first elected to the Lower House in 1993, they were UBP replacements for veteran UBP MPs Ralph Marshall and Harry Viera.
Five years ago, the Gordon/Dodwell team found Mr. Scott at the Southampton Glebe School polling station on his second try to get into Parliament. He garnered 507 votes at that time, an improvement over his first attempt.
Last night, he improved again to 638 votes. And although he still didn't get elected, he felt some measure of achievement.
"Those 638 votes were plump votes,'' he said. "They were not split and that's why I kept very much on the tail of my opponents. They were not advancing beyond me, because PLP supporters were giving single solid votes to my party and myself.
"I'm very gratified by that. It showed a determination for change. But right now, my thought is to what is happening in other constituencies.'' RESULTS Pamela Gordon (UBP) 802 David Dodwell (UBP) 768 Michael Scott (PLP) 638
