Running in her home constituency on July 24, optometrist Yvette Swan is appealing to many of the voters she has been canvassing since the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) won the 1998 election.

The former senator and Cabinet minister said she "did not have to even think about it" when she was called upon by the United Bermuda Party (UBP) to run in Warwick North Central, also known as district 27.

"I'm a people person," she said, when explaining why she had chosen to run in what may be one of the more contentious contests of the election. "I think it is time for change of Governnment and the new UBP can do a better job."

Mrs. Swan, who served as Minister for Community and Cultural Affairs and Minister for Government and Community Services after she became a Senator in 1993, was born in Jamaica and educated in England, but has been on the Island since 1971 when she moved here after marrying Malcolm Swan, who she met while studying at Paddington Technical College in London.

She has worked at the Bermuda Optical Company since arriving in Bermuda and has been a member of the UBP since 1978, although she has been interested in politics since she was eight when she watched the explosive debates of her two godparents, both of whom were members of Jamaica's two opposing parties.

A lay preacher with the Wesley Methodist Church and a former president of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women, Mrs. Swan said crime and affordable housing were the top of the list of concerns among people she had spoken to.

Her focus will be on improving the community policing of the area and the creation of a Police substation along a stretch of Middle Road that has been the subject of complaints by area residents.

On housing, she said: "There are so many people in my area who have had notice and there is a need for one and two bedroom places. The rents tend to be higher than many people are capable of paying. It is so important for people to have shelter because that is how they survive. The UBP has a national plan to deal with the problem."

And asked about her prospects of winning, she said: "It's really a marginal seat and you just have to do the work. It can be won. I've done the work and I'm still doing the work. I don't think that there is a house in this area that I haven't been too."