By Don Burgess
HAMILTON (Reuters) – Bermuda’s center-left Progressive Labor Party (PLP) held on to government for its third consecutive general election on Tuesday night, losing four seats but retaining a comfortable majority even as a record number of candidates ran, many independently.
PLP Premier David Burt has governed the overseas British territory, situated some 1,400 km (870 miles) off the U.S. coast in the North Atlantic, since winning the 2017 general election.
It ended Tuesday’s vote with 49.6% of votes compared to 36.9% for the center-right One Bermuda Alliance (OBA), winning 25 of the House of Assembly’s 36 seats while the OBA snatched up the remaining 11 seats.
A record 109 candidates ran in Tuesday’s election, seen as a sign of dissatisfaction with the PLP alongside the 54.98% vote turnout – slightly below the 55% who turned out to vote during 2020’s pandemic-hit general election.
Burt, who stressed his party’s support for residents in lower and middle-class tax brackets, said in a speech outside his party headquarters that PLP would focus on the high costs of living, expensive healthcare and reform the territory’s education system.
“Bermudians have chosen progress, fairness, and a PLP government that will deliver for you,” he said.
A group of independents, some under the banner of former United Bermuda Party (UBP) Premier Sir John Swan, received 9.2% of votes – and no seats – while the libertarian-leaning Free Democratic Movement (FDM) placed fourth with 3.8%.
Swan was Bermuda’s premier from 1982 through 1995, when he resigned after losing a referendum on independence, which he supported, as many voters abstained from the polls.
(Reporting by Don Burgess in Hamilton; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Chizu Nomiyama)
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