It was only after an attempt by the expelled members of the Progressive Labour Party to rejoin the party failed that steps were taken to form the National Liberal Party in 1985.

"We had spent time trying to get back into the party," founding member and former chairman of the NLP, Charles Jeffers, revealed.

"We had meetings at Hermitage Road and for several months we met, working out how we could unify the party. It was only after it was felt an election was going to be called and that we would have four MPs (Gilbert Darrell, Lionel Simmons, Austin Thomas and Walter Brangman) who had no home, that we reluctantly formed the NLP."

Eighteen years later the NLP is still a party, though they have struggled to attract both strong candidates and support from the voters. Mr. Jeffers shares the view of former leader Gilbert Darrell that the party is losing its battle to become a formidable third party.

The party has not had an MP in the House of Assembly since 1993 when Mr. Darrell, described by his successor as the "glue that held the party together", lost his seat in Hamilton East.

Mr. Darrell was in his early 60s when he helped form the NLP and was 70 years old when he failed to regain his seat.

"When he was in his late 60s and early 70s he could very easily have gone home and said to himself with full justification 'I've done a good job, now it's time to retire'," said Mr. Jeffers.

"But he continued to work with the NLP, not just with his mind and mouth but also with his finances. He held the party together but he did not do it for personal fame or fortune.

"I believe an indication of what the people of Bermuda, especially those in Hamilton Parish, felt about Gilbert Darrell was expressed in the fact that even after he was expelled from the (PLP) party he was able to hold his seat for two more elections.

"In the times when he and 'Hackie' (Haskins) Davis ran against each other - he as PLP and Hackie as UBP - no matter who the other candidates were for PLP and UBP, it was always Gilbert and 'Hackie'."

Mr. Darrell's popularity dropped drastically in '93 when, after leading the polls in the previous election, he finished second from last in the count. It effectively ended his 30-year political career.

"I'm sure there are many people who did not give Gilbert Darrell their vote, but it was with a heavy heart," said Mr. Jeffers.

"It was circumstances more than character that caused him to lose his seat. Incidentally I always felt that the Senate is a place for the Gilbert Darrells of this world, the people who have fought a good fight and kept the faith.

"They call the Senate the house of 'sober second thought'. Unfortunately both parties have used it as a trial ground for aspiring politicians, where it should be the place where politicians who have paid their dues go to reflect to the legislation that comes up from the house."

Mr. Jeffers was chairman of the party until 1987 when he left Bermuda to live in Canada. He returned home in 1995 and in 1996 regained the post of chairman from Mr. Darrell.

"He had decided he wanted to resign as chairman but he still attended meetings and was there financially and otherwise," recalled Mr. Jeffers.

"The unfortunate thing is there hasn't been a strong, consistent spokesman for the party since then. In politics you need consistency and if you are a minority group you need to be even more consistent. There are people who still think I am still involved with the NLP and one of the reasons is when I was chairman I used to prepare statements on Sundays, find an issue to talk about and make a release on the Sunday."

Graeme Outerbridge is the deputy chairman of the party but speaks out more on issues of concern to the party than does the chairman Dessaline Waldron.

Proud to see themselves as a middle-of-the-road party between the UBP and PLP, the NLP succeeded in attracting a diverse racial mix ... whites not happy with the UBP but not willing to join the PLP and blacks who did not see the UBP as an alternative to the PLP.

"We had a good racial make-up even when we ran our first two elections, we didn't have problems finding white candidates," said Mr. Jeffers.

Mr. Jeffers, who stood as a candidate in 1985 and again in 1998 after returning to Bermuda, accepts the NLP is fighting a losing battle to survive.

"I believe the NLP has missed the boat," he feels.

"Maybe another party in the future, maybe the remnants of the NLP or some discontented group will get together, but unfortunately the NLP in its present form will not survive."

Mr. Jeffers wrote an opinion article in The Royal Gazette in May when he expressed his concerns about the effectiveness of party politics in Bermuda.

He wrote: "The Westminster style political system has mechanisms in place to coerce unwilling Members of Parliament into casting their votes for the party's official position on bills brought into the House. One of the responsibilities of the "party whip" is to make sure, as much as possible, that members vote as expected.

"Non-compliance could mean discipline for errant Members and that discipline could be as extreme as banishment from the party, irrespective of the opinion or the feelings of the constituents who supported the party by electing those Members. In my way of thinking, this is a form of slavery - political slavery."

Speaking last week, Mr. Jeffers stood by his belief that party politics is not benefiting the country.

"I'm against party politics in the present form, but in the present form I don't think we are going to see more than two parties successful," he stated.

So what is Mr. Jeffers' wish for the Election?

"I hope we get the 36 best people and let the chips fall where they may," he said.

"My feeling is not one party has shown to be any better than the other party, so if you get the right people then they will find a way of making it work. And I hope whoever wins it is a close election, so that nobody can get arrogant and that people will have to attend the House of Assembly. It's going to be interesting.

"I told people at the last election that the expectations, especially amongst black Bermudians, is going to be greater when it comes to the PLP than it was with the UBP. I had said they were going to be less forgiving and less patient with the PLP."

Mr. Jeffers doesn't see himself as a spent force in the political arena just yet.

"One day I might make a comeback," he warned.

'I don't know how or in what form but I'm certainly politically not dead. I have just chosen to take a sabbatical. I've been involved in politics for 40 years, with the Theatre Boycott my introduction to politics.

"During 1999 I made a decision I was going to resign from party politics, I just get sick and tired of the whole thing. I'm not saying I won't get involved again in the future, I'm only 61 so I'm still relatively young."