United Bermuda Party candidate Devrae Noel-Simmons is in hospital with appendicitis after being taken ill 24 hours before the Warwick South Central by-election.Mr Noel-Simmons is to undergo surgery tonight, leaving a question mark over his availability at the polling station tomorrow.He is up against Marc Bean of the Progressive Labour Party and Sylvan Richards of the Bermuda Democratic Alliance in the race to replace former Premier Ewart Brown as the MP for Constituency 26 tomorrow.“I'm beyond upset to feel at this moment that I have let you all down, especially with the amount of work that's gone into setting this up,” the candidate said in an email to the party from his hospital bed.“But with people putting in their time and hard work I know that we can still prevail.”UBP Leader Kim Swan said: “It has been a fantastic journey with Devrae these past few weeks and this eleventh hour development is a shocker."Of course all of us in the party send him the best for a speedy recovery. Devrae is such a strong character that it would not be surprising if he turned up at the polling station tomorrow."In terms of the by-election, I would like to leave one thought with the people of Warwick: Bermuda today needs the strongest possible community leadership."We need people on the ground who can listen, understand and carry forward the concerns, issues and hopes of everyday people. Devrae is absolutely that kind of leader. Warwick needs strong leadership and Devrae will provide it, of that I have no doubt."For the full story, see tomorrow's Royal Gazette and don't forget to follow the election live with our Follow It Live site