Bermudian politics, the party faithful decided on Monday night.

Party chairman Charles Jeffers said he was heartened by the response at a closed party meeting.

He said: "The meeting was unanimous that the party should continue -- it was very interesting and exciting.

"The party will definitely continue and we will be releasing a fuller statement later on and the resolutions which were made.'' He admitted: "It was not a large crowd but the interesting thing was that a number of people who were there were not regular attenders at our meetings and we even had a couple of new members.'' Last month, Mr. Jeffers predicted that the future of the party depended on a good showing in the Devonshire South by-election.

He had ambitions of netting at least 25 percent of the vote and forcing the Progressive Labour Party's Danny Farias into third place.

But the United Bermuda Party's Michael Dunkley romped home and Mr. Jeffers could only manage a third place, well behind Mr. Farias and with only nine percent of the vote.

Mr. Jeffers, however, said: "At that time one was not necessarily in an upbeat mood. I felt the party should continue -- but there had to be more to it than that.''