it was revealed yesterday.

For the National Liberal Party -- left reeling after a resounding defeat in last month's Devonshire South by-election -- is to revamp its approach to campaigning in the run-up to a General Election.

And NLP chief Charles Jeffers promised: "You will probably see a lot more aggressiveness.

"We are working on a new strategy and we are certainly taking a look at how we handle things -- right now, we are the nice guys.

"The party will be examining how we handle responses to both the other parties and how and what we say.'' He also said the party would contest at least four and perhaps as many as 12 seats in the House of Assembly.

The move comes on the heels of a drubbing in Devonshire South -- a poll on which Mr. Jeffers had staked the NLP's future.

He had ambitions of netting around 25 per cent of the vote and even of pushing the Progressive Labour Party's Danny Farias into third place behind winner Michael Dunkley of the United Bermuda Party.

But Mr. Jeffers came in third, well behind Mr. Farias and with just nine percent of the vote.

The party, however, rallied behind Mr. Jeffers and vowed to continue the comeback fight.

Now the NLP is expected to begin the candidate selection process, continue a membership drive and launch a fundraising campaign.

Mr. Jeffers said: "We are getting into gear -- we have had a few applications already.'' He added: "We are looking at each constituency, evaluating them and putting them into order from our point of view. How many we will fight depends on the candidate process.'' Mr. Jeffers said one lesson learnt in Devonshire South was the need for activists to do the behind-the-scenes work like canvassing and pick-ups.

He added: "One of the problems we face as a small party is the number of workers -- that was really a disadvantage in Devonshire South.''