David Burt, among others in position of high office, has been known to refer to election cycles as the silly season. A time when normally sane folks lose their minds in an attempt to have their party of choice assume the role of government for five years.

This particular election cycle has revealed the absolute worst in Bermudians, while informing that the racial divide is as wide as ever, with no imminent signs of being closed.

Perhaps our society has been too harsh on the likes of Marisa Baron, simply for being related to a politician, when she is but a fly in a rather distasteful ointment of racial enmity and class distinction that ensure that this country will be at war with itself for generations to come.

The decision by this newspaper to close comment on political content on the website has been soundly justified by what has taken place on social media before and since July 4, when the 77 candidates for today’s General Election were nominated.

So, too, the decision to discontinue partisan opinion and Letters to the Editor as of the first day of advance polling on July 11. It is part of our responsibility to take some of the heat out of the conversation, and also to make The Royal Gazette less of the story by producing as much independent content as possible.

While some comment has been unbiased and informative, the large majority — those who in the main feel no shame in revealing their identities — has been divisive, borderline and overtly racist and, most significantly, unhelpful for those who wish genuinely to make this country whole.

That cannot happen and will not happen for the foreseeable future — no matter whether the One Bermuda Alliance wins a second successive mandate to govern, or whether the Progressive Labour Party can turn the tide and return to power. The unceasing efforts by each to demonise one another, plus the effect that has had on supporters, inform as such.

But today, starting at 8am, it is to be hoped that stops and that the incivility that has been such a feature of this election cycle is replaced by 12 hours of calm decision-making by the voting public.

We have done our part with a view to making the electorate more aware on the issues, but we accept also that the issues are for a small percentage — the swing voters who will decide the election. The rest have made their minds to vote along party/racial lines some time ago: for whites, see OBA red; for blacks, see PLP green.

Ninety-four per cent of the white vote going to the OBA and 61 per cent of the black vote going to the PLP, according to our most recent Global Research poll, are not numbers to be easily dismissed by a so-called inclusive and racially sensitive community. Instead, they inform the real differences on this island and just how far we are apart.

So on to the contestants and what today means for them.

No one can deny that the OBA has been on a good run; that, as much as Burt’s motion of no confidence, is reason for Michael Dunkley to call the election five months earlier than had been predicted for most of 2015 and 2016.

Tourism upsurge, St Regis hotel in St George’s, airport redevelopment project, The Loren at Pink Beach, Caroline Bay, the 35th America’s Cup, stable economy with encouraging numbers. These are all justification for the OBA and its supporters to feel confident that it is best equipped to see to the country’s business.

But there are the naysayers who will point to Jetgate, furlough days, Pathways to Status, Michael Fahy, the airport redevelopment project, the Reverend Nicholas Tweed, December 2 and the pepper-spraying of seniors, the 35th America’s Cup, the Shawn Crockwell saga and Michael Fahy — again, just for the heck of it — to confirm that the ruling party is not for the common man.

How does the OBA’s balance sheet play itself out? Has it done enough to warrant a second term? To offset a communications deficit that has plagued the party throughout on some of the bigger social issues.

The PLP as the Opposition has had to be on the front foot since losing the previous election in December 2012, and for the most part it has done that well, exploiting whatever faux pas that have come from the OBA. But to win this election, it will have to outrun its recent past.

To be in government during the global economic downturn of 2008-09 was indeed bad luck, but much of what happened in the aftermath of the crash cannot be put down to bad luck alone. This, the spiralling deficits and gross overspending are what lost the PLP the election in 2012, and the hope at Alaska Hall is not so much that the public have forgotten the mismanagement — because they haven’t and shouldn’t — but that they now believe that the PLP is much better placed to oversee the public purse in the event of another worst-case scenario.

A leap of faith at best; a gamble at worst.

It is the often unconvincing and polarising nature of the main parties that has given independents a look-in in 2017. Of the five brave souls attempting to replicate Stuart Hayward’s feat of 1989, the names Paula Cox and Thaddeus Hollis jump off the page, the former more significantly being a past premier.

It is very possible that Cox could swing this election for either party — more likely the incumbent — if she polls well in Devonshire North West. If she does the improbable and reverses the result of 2012 while also seeing off a credible newcomer from her former party, then all bets are off in an election where the margins are already razor-thin.

To the 46,669 registered voters, there is more rain in the air today, but there can be no excuses. Get out and exercise your civic right.

•Comments are closed on political content from July 4 to 19 to stem the flow of purposefully inflammatory and litigious comments during the General Election cycle. Users who introduce extreme partisan comments into other news content will be banned.