St. George's Mayor Mariea Caisey is stepping down this year and she has thrown her weight behind Deputy Mayor Kenny Bascome to succeed her.

Ms Caisey said she wanted to concentrate on her job at the Bank of Bermuda.

She added: "I am stepping aside to allow someone with fresh ideas to come along and help the town."

Mayor Caisey said the election date had tentatively been set for November 18 but an election could be held before that.

Ms Caisey said she didn't know how many people would be vying to replace her.

She added: "I am sure my deputy Kenny Bascome will be running, I hope that he will be successful. I will be backing him."

Mr. Bascome, who has twice fought and lost the St. George's North seat of the United Bermuda Party, said it was too early to be talking about the election but he admitted he is interested in running.

He added: "As it stands I do have an interest to try to convince the community to support me.

"I would like to be mayor of the jewel of Bermuda."

St. George's elections are traditionally a close run thing.

Ms Caisey was elected in January 2006, beating incumbent Mayor E. Michael Jones, who had called an early election, by just three votes.

Three years earlier Ms Caisey had lost to Mr. Jones by two votes with a third-placed challenger just a few votes behind.

Mr. Jones is tipped to run again while locals also believe Alderman Beau Evans might fancy being Mayor. Neither could be reached for comment yesterday.

St. George's West MP Kim Swan paid tribute to Ms Caisey's efforts in pushing for the re-opening of the Police station.

He said it was vital to make the Old Town Bermuda's premier tourism spot and he said more needed to be done to make the most of the forts to lure visitors interested in history.

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