Thursday night outside Alaska Hall should have been the biggest celebration the Progressive Labour Party had held since their momentous party there on November 9, 1998, when they swept to power for the first time.

But within minutes of the polls closing at 8 p.m., the thin veneer of unity which Premier Jennifer Smith had managed to preserve during the election campaign disappeared completely.

Party supporters noticed that half the Cabinet and a tranche of MPs who should have been whooping it up on Court Street were missing.

Instead of joining the celebrations, it is thought the rebels went to the Fairmont Hamilton Hotel to plot the downfall of Ms Smith, whose unpopularity seemed confirmed in the polls when she managed to scrape home in St. George's North with a majority of just eight votes.

The celebrations were soured by the stand-off between the Smith loyalists and the rebel group, consisting of Transport Minister Ewart Brown, Health Minister Nelson Bascome, Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister, Environment Minister Dennis Lister, Deputy Speaker Walter Lister, Youth and Sports Minister Randy Horton, Government Whip Ottiwell Simmons, Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess, backbenchers Dale Butler and Wayne Perinchief, and newly-elected MP George Scott.

The rebels demanded Ms Smith come to meet them, but the Premier insisted they should come instead to her. They wanted to exercise their right under the Constitution as members of the majority party to vote for who would be premier.

By yesterday morning, the Premier was trying to put together her new Cabinet to have them sworn in by Governor Sir John Vereker at Government House in what should have been the sweet affirmation of Thursday night's victory.

But the dissidents were looking for emancipation from Ms Smith's leadership, which they feel is autocratic, secretive and nepotistic.

The Premier offered Cabinet posts to some but she was rebuffed as the rebels stuck to their guns.

At a grim Press conference at Cabinet Office yesterday afternoon, the Premier unveiled a makeshift Cabinet by shuffling her remaining loyal Ministers. One appointment that looked particularly desperate saw Education Minister Paula Cox also take on the onerous role of Attorney General.

Confirming she had been turned down by some of her former Ministers, Ms Smith said she hoped to have her Cabinet appointments sworn in by the Governor on Monday.

In truth, the knives had been out for years as both PLP backbenchers and Ministers became increasingly infuriated at Ms Smith's tendency to confide in only a small coterie of yes men and women.

At a caucus meeting in May last year, backbench MPs tried to force her to step down as leader. But the vote was tied 9-9 and the Premier survived.

She also comfortably survived a leadership challenge at the party conference in October 2000 by former Environment Minister Arthur Hodgson. He paid the price of taking on Ms Smith and was sacked from the Cabinet within days.

This latest and most serious rebellion is borne of the same frustration from Ministers and MPs who have had enough of being kept out of the loop and being caught cold on major decisions such as Caricom membership, constitutional change, and even the timing of Thursday's election.

PLP sources say even some Cabinet members were kept in the dark about the constitutional reforms to introduce single seat constituencies until they were tabled in the House of Assembly.

Another classic example was the calling of the election itself. Tourism Minister Renee Webb and Home Affairs Minister Mr. Lister met with the Premier on Sunday June 8, hours before flying out of the Island on Government business.

Two days later, the Premier called the election, catching Ms Webb, who was in London, and Mr. Lister, who was in Geneva for an International Labour Organisation conference, totally off guard. Sources say Mr. Lister blew his top when he realised the Premier had allowed him to fly to Europe for a major conference only for him to have to fly back to Bermuda as soon as the election was called.

Observers wondered why, having called the election on June 10, the Premier waited until July 21, three days before the poll, before unveiling the PLP platform. Again, Ministers were kept guessing, with sources saying many got their first glance of the document just before it was handed out at a Press conference at Alaska Hall on Monday.

The weekend before the election, one Minister who spoke to The Royal Gazette admitted to having no idea when the platform would be published.

"I've no idea when its coming out - some time before the election I hope," giggled the embarrassed Minister.

So, as the UBP bombarded voters with Press conferences and television and newspaper adverts, there was silence from the PLP.

In an unusual step, consistent say critics with the Premier's obsessions with micro-management, she decided to run the campaign herself.

Even the decision to bring in theatre boycott hero Kingsley Tweed is said to have caught many by surprise. When the Bermuda Sun broke the story of Mr. Tweed's arrival, confirmed by his family, campaign chair Walter Roban would only say the party had nothing official to say.

And the platform itself, although 44 pages long, contained barely no new major policy initiatives and consisted almost totally of a recap of PLP achievements.

A PLP source said the rebel group had been talking generally about ditching Ms Smith after the election because she was seen as a liability.

And their determination gathered momentum on Wednesday when a poll in the Bermuda Sun put the parties neck and neck, with 60 percent of voters saying the leader should stand down if the PLP won.

Ms Smith's poor performance in her own traditionally safe seat, where she scraped in by just eight votes in what had been solid PLP territory, confirmed to the dissidents how unpopular the leader had become.

"Everything sort of crystallised in the last few days," said the PLP source.

"They had been talking before about it and had most likely been in conversation since the 9-9 vote in Parliament.

"Most people base their judgment of the Premier on style, which is unconscionable for any political leader. It breaks every rule in politics 101.

"But if people knew half the stuff that went on in the inside in the past five years, they would be really disgusted.

"What meritocracy there had been was replaced so that promotion was based on loyalty to herself or the old guard of the party. How did a Glenn Blakeney or an Ashfield DeVent get safe seats when someone like Dale Butler had to fight for his life in a marginal?

"The campaign would have been run by the Premier, Lt. Col. Burch and the usual yes men and woman from Alaska Hall. It really descended into a case of the emperor having no clothes."