The battle for second place in the Warwick South Central by-election is underway as the Bermuda Democratic Alliance revealed it's selecting a candidate to try to beat the United Bermuda Party.

"We would certainly have at least the opportunity to come second and try to make an impact," the fledgling party's chairman Michael Fahy said yesterday.

Mr. Fahy had previously said the BDA might not contest the by-election because it didn't want to send a "lamb to the slaughter" in the Progressive Labour Party stronghold where Premier Ewart Brown has been the long-serving local MP.

But the chairman has been heartened by the PLP's selection of Senator Marc Bean, who lost a Southampton West Central by-election two years ago, 12 months after being defeated there at the 2007 General Election.

He said Sen. Bean's track record, on top of general disillusionment with the governing party, means votes are up for grabs.

"Enough people in the Country right now are disaffected with the PLP's policies, and Senator Bean has run twice and been unsuccessful," said Mr. Fahy.

"We are actively considering which of our members we will run in the by-election. I think that it's an opportunity for us to demonstrate that the BDA is a party that people need to recognise as an option."

The UBP is still in its selection process in Warwick, with locally-based party chair Jeanne Atherden one possibility, along with Roderick Simons, who lost to Dr. Brown in 2007 and has also been overlooked in favour of Jeff Sousa and Charlie Swan by UBP branches in the past two years.