I have never run in a General Election, and I’ve also never run in any election where I have truly examined my conscience, truly thought about why I am running, why I want to serve the people and make the concerted effort to win.

Well, there will be people that say, “Didn't you run in 2018 in that by-election in Constituency 25?”

I did but that was only to save face for the One Bermuda Alliance. I was never the approved candidate for the OBA in 2018 for Constituency 25, as I was made the candidate 12 hours before that infamous press conference.

So what happened?

It is truly too long a story and I don’t want to play political tricks, but the constituents of Warwick North East deserve the truth.

After the resignations of Jeff Baron and Grant Gibbons in 2018, there became two approved candidates for the OBA for those by-elections — one of them being Scott Pearman and the other a prominent person that I will respectfully not name.

In the background, the leadership at the time and the candidate selection committee, on which I did not sit, decided to consider the message it would send to the electorate if they ran a different kind of candidate in Constituency 22 and Scott Pearman in Constituency 25. This was argued by several people that it would break the chains of legacy and show the OBA was not the continuation of the United Bermuda Party.

That clearly did not happen and the leader, Jeanne Atherden, called me the night before the candidate announcement to say that they didn’t reach an agreement with this prominent individual and he took his name out of consideration to run.

I told the leader that the OBA would be finished if we weren’t rolling out two candidates, especially given that:

• We were the party that triggered the by-elections because two of our members wanted to jump ship after being elected not even a full year before

• The Progressive Labour Party had already announced its candidates in Curtis Dickinson and Curtis Richardson

The leader called me back an hour later to say that she couldn’t secure someone and asked if I would run. I reluctantly obliged; given that I had a job offer with a local audit firm, I had to call them first thing that morning to confirm it was OK, and the speech that I gave on that day was written in 30 minutes just prior to that press conference.

I say all of this to say that I didn’t choose Constituency 25; fate choose it for me.

Just like many things that are forced on me in life, it didn’t bode well in the beginning. But then there were beautiful moments on that campaign where people would share stories of my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and the impact that they had on Warwick life. It was then when I knew why this opportunity was placed in front of me.

I knew I was going to lose as there were so many people who supported me that wanted Curtis Dickinson to become the finance minister — and I agreed with them!

I tried to run in 2020 to represent Constituency 25 but the leader at the time, Craig Cannonier, implied that I needed to bend the knee of sorts and ask for forgiveness after not supporting his unconstitutional accession to the party leadership in 2018.

Everyone who knows me and my character knows that would never happen!

In 2022, I submitted my interest again to the candidate selection committee to run in Constituency 25. I was told no because we have a fresh-faced politician to run in that constituency and that I was better off running in Constituency 27 as the “demographics better suited me” more than the person who ran there in 2020 [Douglas De Couto].

Anyone who knows me knows that I hate the consideration of race when it comes to a reason why someone runs in a constituency.

So why the consideration for me to run in Constituency 25?

I have made lifelong connections with the people of Warwick North East and I reminded myself that I made a pledge to them that I would never run anywhere else. As such, I feel the need to defend them from two opportunists.

This will be Doug DeCouto’s third General Election run:

1, Constituency 29 for the UBP in 2007

2, Constituency 27 for the OBA in 2020

3, Constituency 25 for in 2025

If you follow the pattern, maybe in 2030 he will run in Constituency 23.

Then you have the PLP’s Arianna Hodgson, who has moved from Constituency 23 in 2020 to Constituency 25 in this election and who was probably trying to make a claim to run in the vacant seat of Constituency 5, which will now be contested by pastor Leroy Bean.

I never understood the strategy behind hopping from one constituency to another — aren’t you just showcasing that you don’t have the determination to work hard and devote yourself to one constituency?

All these individuals are portraying is an insatiable thirst for a “safe seat” so that they can fulfil their lifelong dream of fame.

Do they have a burning desire to serve the people? Or will they both act as if they do, on the doorstep and in public, just to play the game?

I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a big narcissistic photo of one of these two in our constituency as an intimidation tactic — like a dog urinating on a tree to mark their territory.

No party owns your vote and they don’t deserve your unwavering loyalty.

Since my last article, both the OBA and PLP have come out against me. Just ask yourself why.

The PLP and OBA have no donors left to run advertisements and other vitriol that you normally see during these types of elections. Now they must use their personal money — through their salaries from the public purse — for campaigning.

So this means the campaign is wholly personal to them and their public careers are on the line.

Ask Ariana:

• What is the PLP plan and why has it not been executed in the past 8 years?

• Why are PLP stalwarts such as Wayne Caines and Derrick Burgess leaving the PLP in the dying hours of the campaign?

• Does the PLP have 36 candidates and is it providing incentives to volunteers to fill vacant seats like the OBA?

Ask Doug:

• If the OBA platform has been out for six months, as he said in a press conference on January 21, why isn’t anyone interested or excited about it outside of the diehard base?

• Why is the OBA haemorrhaging women representatives? The OBA has lost three outstanding and empowering women in Susan Jackson, Tia Smith and Elizabeth Deacon.

• What is the OBA’s plan to have women representatives when, possibly at the final reveal of 36 candidates on January 31, fewer than 20 per cent of the candidates will be women?

• What incentives is the OBA giving and why has it resorted to asking volunteers to stand for the party, given the recent dropouts — and why didn’t it have a back-up plan?

For the silent members of the PLP and OBA who are not coming to the defence of Bermudians and putting themselves forward as a viable option, I hope you examine your conscience in the coming days.

This quote from the former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney about the Trump effect is poignant to our election:

“I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonour will remain.”

There will come a day when there is no OBA or PLP, and history will remember those who held on to power with their last dying breath and dollar!

This is the final time I will be writing about the past or directly about any of the parties. When I officially announce my campaign this week, I will talk only about the future, my passion for my country, her people and the community we will build together.

• Justin Mathias, a former One Bermuda Alliance chairman and senator, is an independent candidate for Warwick North East (Constituency 25) in the next General Election