next election -- whenever it may be.

The Pembroke West Central incumbent has just watched a hard-fought United Bermuda Party primary, and the elevation of the party's new adopted candidate Mr. Jerome Dill to the Senate.

Election rumours abound, though Mr. Hayward says he will not be entirely convinced an election is imminent until Serpentine Road is repaved. But he knows he has a tough fight against a UBP that sees his seat as important to its overall victory.

The constituency stretches south from North Shore, across St. John's Road and Serpentine Road to Hamilton Harbour. It includes Mount Hill, the Bermuda Electric Light Co., and wealthy neighbourhoods off Pitts Bay Road and Rosemont Avenue. It has traditionally provided UBP candidates with a comfortable majority.

"We definitely believe the seat can be won back,'' said UBP executive Mr. Joe Gibbons, who himself explored but rejected the idea of running in Pembroke West Central last year. "But we respect Stuart's ability to get out there and mount a campaign.'' Mr. Hayward, who just turned 50, acknowledges he will enter the election without two big advantages he enjoyed in 1989: Surprise, and UBP incumbents widely accused of taking their seats for granted.

Mr. Hayward points out that since the 1989 defeat of Deputy Premier Dr.

Clarence James the UBP has opened a constituency office, paid more attention to pollution problems from the Bermuda Electric Light Co., and responded to complaints about people "hanging out'' and selling drugs.

The UBP has made the environment -- Mr. Hayward's key issue -- one of its "five pillars'' and made its own Pembroke West Central incumbent, the Hon.

Ann Cartwright DeCouto, the country's Environment Minister.

And the recent UBP primary sent three enthusiastic candidates knocking on constituents' doors as never before.

"The last time Government did not take Stuart very seriously,'' said one of Mr. Hayward's key campaign workers. "They did not measure the disenchantment that many people felt with Government's direction, or lack of direction.

"But I think what we have lost in terms of surprise, we have now solidified in terms of performance.'' And one of the accomplishments Mr. Hayward will be claiming as he campaigns is that he forced the UBP to sit up, listen, and do things.

"I think most people can see that Stuart Hayward has had an influence on events,'' Mr. Hayward said.

"Now there are candidates popping up all over the place who are claiming they are environmentalists -- and I don't belittle their claims -- who care about the environment, who say that the environment is important. That is for the benefit of Bermuda.'' The novelty is gone, he admits, but the importance remains. And while the UBP has assumed the mantle of environmentalism, he says, neither they nor the PLP has been able to tackle another of his importance concerns -- the confrontational nature of Bermuda politics and society.

The issue of confrontation, he said, will be as fresh and vital in the next election as it was in the last.

"I think people are beginning to realise that it's not going to change at the behest of the parties,'' he said. "It's inherent in our system. This is the blood of life for any party.

"So a party would have to be extremely visionary and extraordinarily progressive to contemplate changing the system that gives it life. But it's becoming the death of the community because it's spreading everywhere.'' To spread his message, Mr. Hayward spent over $20,000 in the 1989 election. He reckons the next election will cost a little less, but experience means the money will be spent more wisely.

Much of the money will, no doubt, be spent trying to convince the heavily UBP electorate of the constituency not to worry that voting for him could deprive the UBP of a seat needed to retain the Government.

That is one of the reasons Mr. Hayward is upset by UBP attempts to portray him as a PLP "sympathiser.'' Mr. Hayward said he supported the UBP on 80 percent of votes during his first two years in office. Since then, although he has stopped counting, he says he has supported the UBP even more.

But he said he hopes that both sides feel they can count on his support, if their ideas are solid and honest.

Mr. Hayward said he believes he has retained his key support since 1989.

"There are people who hoped I could do more. The truth is I had no idea of what I could actually accomplish. And I suppose, to be fair, the accomplishment was cracking the stronghold -- cracking the idea that there was no place for an independent.'' Will Sen. Dill prove tougher than Dr. Clarence James was in 1989? Mr. Hayward refuses to answer.

"I'm not running against anyone. I'm running for what I stand for, for what I can do.'' Indeed, he said, he is not even sketching out possible outcomes or worrying about election strategy.

"There are people counting numbers. But that part of campaigning isn't part of my nature. I just don't know enough about it.'' Even door-to-door canvassing, he said, "doesn't come easily. I have to be talked into it.'' He enjoys talking, he said, but doesn't like interrupting people or feeling like an intruder. "One of the thing's I've been doing is calling people up and making an appointment.'' An oft-repeated line from Mr. Hayward is that the seat in the House "doesn't belong to me.'' But by the same reasoning, it doesn't belong to the United Bermuda Party either.

The energy and dynamism of the 1989 campaign cannot be duplicated, Mr. Hayward said, but they don't need to be.

"It's not the same election. It's not the same circumstances. We are dealing with an incumbent. We aren't dealing with an unknown. The UBP is much more energised itself, and they have something to work toward. So it's going to be a very different campaign.

"But the results can be duplicated.'' MR. STUART HAYWARD -- `I'm running for what I stand for, for what I can do.''