East by-election has opened with all the fractiousness traditionally associated with the party's system of candidate selection. Yesterday, Paul Egan interviewed the two candidates who will fight it out on June 28 .

The Hon. Grant Gibbons is hoping to put controversy over the short run-up to the Paget East primary behind him.

"I'm really not prepared to comment on all the fuss that's going on,'' he said yesterday, producing a copy of the United Bermuda Party's Code of Conduct for primary elections. "I have tried to abide by the Code of Conduct, and it is obviously up to the officers of the party to enforce that.'' His opponent Dr. Edward Harris and others have complained that the July 14 by-election and June 28 primary dates left only four hours to sign up supporters after the primary was called.

But if someone did not like the rules of the game, they should try to change the rules before it began or after it ended -- not while it was under way, Sen. Gibbons said.

The Minister of Management and Technology, Sen. Gibbons invites contrasts with Dr. Harris, who yesterday called on Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan to resign.

"I feel very strongly that what the UBP needs right now is people who are going to work together -- who are going to construct things, rather than rip things apart. To move anything forward, you need a positive approach, rather than a negative approach.'' As the Minister mainly responsible for the takeover of the US Naval Air Station and the Civil Air Terminal under a tight time deadline, Sen. Gibbons is confident the process is moving in an orderly and positive fashion.

And one of the satisfying results would be new Airport jobs for 60 or more Bermudians, he said.

Named to the Senate last October and the Cabinet in January, he said his work on the Bases should answer "the mudslinging that I'm somebody who is handpicked and has no ability to get these things done''.

"I'm a builder and a problem solver,'' he said. The managing director of Gibbons Company said it was "a natural sort of approach from my business background''. A Rhodes Scholar with a doctorate in Chemistry, he felt his academic training also helped. As a synthetic organic chemist "one builds molecules'', he said.

The son of former Hamilton Mayor Mr. E. Graham Gibbons and the nephew of former Premier the Hon. Sir David Gibbons, the 41-year-old Senator returned to Bermuda in 1987 after holding a top job with an American pharmaceutical company.

He said he learned from his parents the importance of "giving back'' to the community, and has served on the board of Bermuda College, the Public Service Commission, the Marine Resources Board, and the Chamber of Commerce.

He and his wife Kathryn, the UBP's executive officer, have two sons: Graham, 8; and Andrew, 7.

A former resident of Paget East who was named to the UBP branch committee there last December, Sen. Gibbons said there were parochial issues he wanted to address as well as national concerns.

While he could take part in decision-making as a Cabinet Minister, Sen.

Gibbons said he wanted constituents. "One is politically much more effective when you have a group of people that you're both accountable to and responsible to,'' he said.

A new Post Office was on track beside Trimingham's on South Road. An application had been submitted to Planning, and he felt neighbours' concerns could be resolved.

Dr. Gibbons called for closer ties between Government and the Corporation of Hamilton in light of the recent break in the Corporation's sewage outfall off the South Shore.

He hoped a crosswalk to help elderly residents would be installed on Middle Road near the Arboretum next week, and said negotiations were under way to purchase property in the constituency for a new playground.

As chairman of the most recent UBP general election campaign, "one of the things that's very important to me is to make sure that Government stays on track with the (campaign) Blueprint,'' Sen. Gibbons said.

"That's the only way we're going to win the next election.'' WE MUST WORK TOGETHER -- Sen. Grant Gibbons and his wife Kathryn.