does allow one day for business before the November 11 public holiday. It also comes when schools are closed and can be more easily used as polling stations.

However it will doubtless disrupt some people who take the mid-term November 11 period to travel abroad for Christmas shopping. That could lead to a good deal of advance voting.

The announcement came one day short of three weeks from the polling day and we think the public was ready for the announcement. Bermudians were in a mood to get on with the choices.

So far it has been a rather confusing election mostly because of conflicting polls and we will not know who was right until the people themselves go to the polls. Very often the situation changes considerably in the last few weeks before voting day when opinion polls are banned in Bermuda by law.

But just as in 1993, when Sir John Swan's government squeaked in, this election shows every sign of being very close and the result will be decided in a few marginal constituencies. It must be a very precarious position for politicians in the marginals to know that their party can win or lose the whole election by a very few votes depending on how hard they campaign in their districts.

There are indications that some registered voters are planning not to vote. It is never wise for people to give up their right to choose who should govern.

Every vote is important in a Country where people can be elected by tiny margins. We have to urge everyone who is registered to get out and vote.

Each party would face individual challenges with a victory.

The PLP would first have to prove that it can govern, never having held power.

Its prime problem would be to maintain Bermuda's much envied economy in difficult ecomonic times because Bermudians have come to take economic success for granted.

The UBP's challenge would be to implement its promises and to unite a Bermuda which is going through a period of division and change. It would have to prove its own unity and fulfill the aspirations of those black Bermudians who still see themselves as being on the fringes of a white dominated Bermuda.

We believe that in defeat both parties would face severe internal turmoil, the PLP because it came so close and lost once again, the UBP because there would be great bitterness and much blaming in defeat and a lack of will to be the Opposition.

One important thing is that Bermuda should not face turmoil during the election process. This will be a hard-fought and passionate contest and there will be bitterness on both sides. The PLP supporters believe their party can finally win. To UBP supporters a loss after over 30 years of power is unthinkable. Some people are going to be gravely disappointed.

But as Opposition Leader Jennifer Smith has said: "It's time for the politics of spite to be banished from Bermuda. I appeal to all Bermudians to remember that after the election storm we must all work together to build a new Bermuda.''