Popularity with voters trumped party politics in Neville Tyrrell’s Warwick South Central triumph, according to seasoned political observer Charles Jeffers.

The new Progressive Labour Party MP reaped 79 per cent of the by-election votes on Tuesday night, well over the 65 per cent and 67 per cent taken by Marc Bean in 2012 and 2010, and Ewart Brown’s 68 per cent and 65 per cent in 2007 and 2003.

“If Mr Tyrrell had run for any other party, he would still probably have won,” Mr Jeffers said — calling it “folly” to read the victory as an indicator for the General Election, or a sign that voters were “fed up by what the governing party is doing”.

“It sounds nice to those that want to believe, but give the candidate credit. Without downplaying the others, he was superior. He is a first-class guy who has done, as Dale Butler says, his apprenticeship. As far as I’m concerned, his day has come.”

The 52 per cent voter turnout trailed behind the 64 per cent who voted in Devonshire North Central this February, when Diallo Rabain won — or the 59 per cent for Sandys South in November 2014, when Jamahl Simmons was returned to Parliament.

But Mr Jeffers said this week’s numbers were not necessarily indicative of full Opposition support, adding that Bermuda did not have “the same party loyalties that there used to be”.

“How many of Mr Tyrrell’s voters were staunchly PLP, and how many were One Bermuda Alliance supporters or sympathetic to the OBA who still thought Mr Tyrrell was the best candidate?” Mr Jeffers asked, noting the candidate’s wealth of political and business experience.

Robyn Swan, the One Bermuda Alliance contender, garnered 17 per cent of the vote — down from Ras Mykkal’s 35 per cent in 2012 for the fledgeling OBA, and up slightly from the 15 per cent taken by Sylvan Richards in 2010 for the Bermuda Democratic Alliance.

“From my own experience as a young man getting involved in politics, I don’t recommend it,” Mr Jeffers said. “Get involved, but not in frontline politics.”

A more experienced candidate, better known in the constituency, might have closed the gap — but Mr Jeffers said the 36-year-old Ms Swan had been “thrown into the lion’s den”.

Regardless of Constituency 26’s status as an Opposition stronghold, this week’s victory was Warwick South Central’s most decisive PLP win in recent history — and Diallo Rabain’s 110-vote lead in Devonshire North Central substantially outdid the narrow nine-vote lead taken there by former PLP MP Glenn Blakeney in 2012, suggesting a relative marginal had been drawn farther into the PLP fold.

Asked if the PLP might angle towards taking back narrow OBA wins in constituencies such as St George’s North and Warwick North Central, Mr Jeffers said: “I would think they would be out there working hard.”

He noted that Mr Tyrrell had “done the work canvassing” aside from being well known in his home constituency — but still maintained that “nobody should read too much into this”.

In a pre-election interview, The Royal Gazette questioned Mr Tyrrell on whether a divide existed between the old guard and younger candidates in the PLP — and if, at age 67, he fell into the former.

While Mr Tyrrell said it might appear so from the outside, he had not seen age as a factor in his case, adding: “I believe the leader and new executive are going to take us in new directions.”

Asked for his verdict, Mr Jeffers said: “He will be a voice of reason. Whether or not he will be listened to is another matter. But as far as I’m concerned, he has leadership quality.”