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Premier ponders cabinet make-up

Cabinet and Senate teams, possibly today.Sir John is expected to use his selections to highlight the emergence of young blacks in leadership roles.

Cabinet and Senate teams, possibly today.

Sir John is expected to use his selections to highlight the emergence of young blacks in leadership roles.

Tops on his list will be three winners in last Tuesday's election: the Hon.

Pamela Gordon, the Hon. Maxwell Burgess and Mr. Jerome Dill.

The selections, which have changed more than once in the past few days, have been shrouded in secrecy.

On the Cabinet scene, the Premier is expected to hold fast with his senior colleagues maintaining their posts.

Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul, Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge, Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira and Home Affairs Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman will remain in their portfolios.

Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness is also expected to hold onto to his post to continue with vital initiatives in the area of health care and drugs abuse.

Community Affairs Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons is tipped to move to Works and Engineering. The shift would free the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto for Delegated Affairs.

Premier Swan last night refused to answer questions about who he planned to put into the Cabinet. "We've heard the message from the community that people want more attention, that they want to improve the quality of their personal lives,'' he said.

"They don't just want a better managed economy but a better managed society that improves the quality of life. There is no sense in a better economy when social problems are getting worse.'' His comments indicate social issues will be the centre of Government activity in the years to come.

Two key ministries in that regard will be Community Affairs and Youth and Sport.

Ms Pamela Gordon may be asked to continue on at Youth and Sport, which looms as a pivotal Ministry given the importance of the youth vote in any future election. And Community Affairs is likely to be used as the platform from which the Government addresses the issue of racism.

If Mr. Dill assumes that post, he will be charged with beginning a community dialogue to break down aspects of racism that cannot be legislated away.

The likely Ministry for Mr. Burgess is Transportation. In the Senate, Sir John will likely use a vacancy to appoint the Hon. Gerald Simons where he can continue to serve as Environment Minister. Mr. Simons has credibility in the portfolio and the Premier is unlikely to want to give up on a man who could very well win back his seat in the crucial constituency of Warwick East.

Two other Senate choices will be the Hon. Mike Winfield who will return to his post as Government leader in the Senate and Mr. Grant Gibbons, who was chairman of the UBP's election campaign.

One possible Senate candidate is Mrs. Yvette Swan, a long-time campaign worker in Warwick West and former head of the Business and Professional Women's Association of Bermuda.