The One Bermuda Alliance is likely to call a General Election rather than “suffer a humiliating defeat” at the no-confidence vote looming this Friday, Senator Renée Ming predicted.

With both parties gearing up for election, Michael Dunkley, the Premier, has hinted merely that the occasion “won’t be long” — telling this newspaper he had “many options” to consider.

Ms Ming’s remarks came at a press conference alongside Opposition MP Jamahl Simmons, and Ernest Peets Jr, who was declared last month as the Progressive Labour Party’s challenger for Mr Dunkley’s constituency of Smith’s North.

Attacking Mr Dunkley’s support in Parliament, the Opposition Leader in the Senate called on eligible voters to register, adding: “This may well be the most important election in our lifetimes. It’s about what it means to be Bermudian.”

In response, the OBA’s chairman Senator Lynne Woolridge accused the Opposition of seeking to “divide Bermuda with misinformation and alternative facts”.

Referring to the departure from the ruling party by Shawn Crockwell and Mark Pettingill, who now sit as independents, Ms Ming said: “It is clear that the OBA has lost control of the House of Assembly and no longer holds the confidence of even two of its founding members.

“The OBA faces two choices: suffer a humiliating defeat in a no-confidence motion, or dissolve the House and move towards a General Election.”

Appealing to the young, Ms Ming said voters were concerned about employment, Bermuda’s high cost of living, and increased protests and “civil unrest in our island home”.

Dr Peets said the election would centre on “Bermuda’s future, and what that future is going to look like going forward”.

He added that one of the OBA’s first moves as Government had been to “break their promise on term limits”.

In the build-up to the 2012 General Election, the OBA had campaigned on a two-year suspension of term limits for a review of the policy.

Senator Michael Fahy, then Minister of Home Affairs, declared in January 2013 that term limits were holding back economic growth.

Dr Peets also accused the OBA of swiftly moving to “limit opportunities to young Bermudians by giving the same opportunities to guest workers” — a reference to the proposal in work permit reforms, put forward in February 2013, to allow dependent children of non-Bermudians under 19 years old to work during the summer without a work permit.

That proposal was subsequently dropped.

Asked about the Government’s claims that the economic recession was being reversed, Opposition MP Jamahl Simmons said that only “children of privilege and wealth can feel that way”.

“There is one Bermuda where they have hit a speed bump on the road to prosperity,” Mr Simmons added. “The rest of Bermuda has been derailed.”

Hitting back, Ms Woolridge insisted that the OBA represented “not one person or faction” — and called the Opposition narrative of two Bermudas “a simplistic attempt to pit Bermudians against each other”.

Branding it “sad and pathetic”, she added: “We know our history and we are moving forward with our future together, not back.

“The One Bermuda Alliance is focused on uplifting all Bermudians, continuing to progress and providing opportunity and hope.

“However, we do agree with the Opposition on one point; this is an important election and one in which people must decide if they want Bermudians to move forward together and continuing the progress we are making — or going back to the failed policies of the past that simply didn’t work for anyone but those who were in power.”

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