backs on the party saying they will not run for it again.

One -- taxi driver Mr. Custerfield Crockwell -- is now running for adoption as a United Bermuda Party candidate, while veterinarian Dr. Maureen Ware's fling with the NLP has left her without any party allegiance whatsoever.

Mr. Crockwell stood for the NLP in St. George's South while Dr. Ware fought for the party in St. George's North. Both lost their bids by wide margins.

In the years after the 1989 vote, the two drifted from the NLP. For Mr.

Crockwell, the move meant a return to the UBP fold which he had left to protest an internal party matter. But it also reflected his assessment the NLP was simply too small in Parliament to achieve anything.

Dr. Ware's drift from the NLP was more ideological. Her allegiance disappeared with party stands for Independence and stricter immigration controls, and its absence in the House of Assembly vote on capital punishment.

Interviews with Mr. Crockwell and Dr. Ware reveal they became NLP candidates in the rush to the election, and without much thought for the party itself.

While there are no hard feelings, there are also no long-lasting links. "It was a nice bunch of people to work with,'' Mr. Crockwell told The Royal Gazette . "We had a lot of good meetings. But this is my decision.'' Mr. Crockwell pulled out of the UBP to protest the fact that its constitution prevented primary challenges against incumbent MPs. The party later amended the constitution to allow challenges.

"Since the constitution got cleared up, I've gone back to where I started from,'' Mr. Crockwell said. "I've got nothing against the NLP. I enjoyed my time with them.'' For Dr. Ware, whose strong political opinions had not found a home in Bermuda since returning from her European education, the call to join came at an NLP dinner party.

"Somebody suggested me for the constituency, and I thought `Why not','' she said. "I was challenged. People were saying it was not good enough to be critical, that I must put my money where my mouth is. I've always believed that.'' Dr. Ware said she had looked at the other political parties "and didn't see anything I could relate to at all ...'' The UBP, she said, was mostly merchant class with little disposition to share while the Progressive Labour Party was almost wholly working class.

"I was hoping the NLP was going to be something different,'' she said.

"After some years of sticking it out, what can I say? It's just the same stuff re-hashed, the same sentiments politically, thinly disguised statements that could have come from either the UBP or the PLP. It doesn't offer anything original ... The NLP is trying to appeal to everybody.'' For party leader Mr. Gilbert Darrell, the departure of Dr. Ware and Mr.

Crockwell "really doesn't mean very much.

"They've all got their own agenda about what they want to do while we want to welcome everybody.'' Mr. Darrell said Mr. Crockwell's departure had not raised eyebrows within the party.

"We take people on trust,'' he said. "If a person is going to use us, there is little we can do about it. If it's obvious, then we can say something about it.'' Part of Mr. Crockwell's decision to leave the party reflected a sense of strength in numbers. The NLP has been carrying its battle in 40-seat Parliament on the shoulders of Mr. Darrell, its lone representative.

"There was no philosophical reason for leaving,'' Mr. Crockwell said. "If I'd got in, then I would've stayed with the NLP. But (after the election) they only had one seat, I thought with that and the (UBP) changing of the constitution, I'd come back.'' Dr. Ware said her departure was not accompanied by "any sense of acrimony at all.

"My reason for leaving is I feel no sense of fraternity with them. If I reviewed their policy statements and stayed, I would be a hypocrite because I don't believe in them.'' Dr. Ware said she was particularly upset with the NLP's "absence'' during the House of Assembly's vote in 1990 to retain capital punishment.

"If Mr. Darrell had been there, it would have been a different outcome ...

When that happened, I could not reconcile it in my mind.'' (Mr. Darrell was in hospital at the time of the vote.) Dr. Ware was also strongly against Independence for Bermuda -- a stance that put her at odds with the NLP.

"They say flacidly Yes they are for it,'' she said. "But I'm strongly against it. I don't think Bermuda has any future in Independence.'' Her ties to the party were further eroded with NLP statements on immigration issues.

"I'm married to a foreigner,'' she said. "I feel passionately if anything we should be relaxing controls. I don't think the answer for Bermuda is to remove all competition for Bermudians.'' Mr. Darrell said the departures of Mr. Crockwell and Dr. Ware had not yet come up at party meetings.

"We appreciate their interest and their efforts,'' he said. "They've got a perfect right to change their minds and go.''