The senior leadership of the One Bermuda Alliance are expected to meet today to decide the fate of Robert King as leader of the party.

While Mr King has been removed as Leader of the Opposition, he remains in place as party leader, at least for now.

The OBA leadership, including its parliamentarians, candidates and executive, must now meet to decide whether to endorse the MPs’ move to depose Mr King.

Ben Smith, the new Opposition leader, said the party will decide internally on the next steps it will take.

Mr King did not have the support of enough MPs to survive in the role, which led to the Governor removing him from the position yesterday.

A swearing-in ceremony for his replacement as Opposition leader took place later in the day when Mr Smith was sworn in to the post at Government House.

However Mr King remains leader of the OBA until a series of steps under the OBA Constitution are taken.

After the swearing-in, Mr Smith said his elevation to Leader of the Opposition was a move towards him holding both leadership roles.

He said: “This is the first [step] towards being able to have both of those roles.

“Where we are in Bermuda is that issues of the people in Bermuda were the priority.

“And with that, when the MPs came to me and said that they wanted me as their leader so that we could do the business that is necessary for us to get to the result we’re looking for, I had to heed that call.”

Questioned on the constitutionality of the process, he said: “The members of our Parliament team did not believe that we were going in the direction that was necessary and for that reason they have made the change and given me the confidence to be their leader.”

He said the selection process was in keeping with the OBA’s constitution.

The OBA constitution rules that an election for the top job must take place if two thirds of the party’s MPs pass a vote of no confidence in the leader — as long as the no-confidence vote is endorsed by the OBA caucus.

The party’s caucus is made up of the executive, MPs, senators, regional chairmen, adopted candidates and approved candidates.

Without the endorsement of the caucus, it is unclear as to whether Mr King could be replaced.

If the OBA caucus endorses the vote of no confidence, it would be the role of the party’s members to elect its leader by way of a secret ballot as per Article 3.4 of the OBA constitution.

The Royal Gazette understands the caucus is due to meet at 5.30pm today.

The OBA constitution states that in order to stand for election as the party’s leader, a candidate must be a member, an MP and not subject to any disciplinary action.

The candidate must have the support, by way of signature, of at least three sitting MPs and at least seven non-parliamentary OBA members in good standing from at least three regions.

It states: “The signatures must be submitted in writing to the OBA secretary within the time specified by the OBA secretary.

“If there is only one valid nomination for the post of OBA leader, the candidate nominated will be declared OBA leader without the need for a ballot.”

If Mr King wishes to contest the leadership of the OBA, he may struggle to get three MPs to nominate him after nine of the other ten MPs reportedly voted for his removal yesterday.

Voting for election of the party’s leader, its deputy leader, party chair and the two OBA deputy chairs is done by secret ballot, the constitution says.

On September 6, Mr King was elected party leader over Mr Smith at a leadership election at the Vasco da Gama Club.

It came after Jarion Richardson said he intended to resign from the post.