shake-up, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

And Susan Wilson -- chairman of the powerful backroom group in charge of candidate selection and election planning -- is set to be dropped in favour of hotelier and ex-Government Senate leader Michael Winfield.

The move is being presented by UBP insiders as the party shifting up a gear to fight the next General Election.

And it is the clearest signal yet that the UBP may be poised to go to the polls in advance of the autumn deadline for a General Election to be called.

The campaign committee, normally low-profile, will become part of the UBP front line in what promises to be a bruising campaign.

But yesterday the UBP was staying tight-lipped over any changes in the party structure. Cambridge Beaches managing director Mr. Winfield said: "I have no comment on that -- nothing has been confirmed yet.'' Mrs. Wilson -- polled last year as a possible Parliamentary candidate -- could not be contacted for comment.

The campaign committee hit the headlines last month after it was revealed UBP primary hopeful, Shell Oil executive Wayne Soares, who had already started campaigning, was not even eligible to stand under the party's own rulebook -- which was apparently ignored. He was due to contest the primary against now-officially adopted candidate, ex-Government Senate Leader Gary Pitman, last week.

But he was forced to drop out of the race after finding he was time-barred from the contest.

UBP insiders, however, insisted that the embarrassment over the primary debacle was not behind the decision to change the hand at the campaign committee's tiller.

One said that Mr. Winfield, who quit his Senate seat in 1994 due to pressure of business, had been campaign committee chairman before, under former Premier Sir John Swan.

Mr. Winfield was one of the main movers behind an ill-fated plan to redevelop the old Bermudiana Hotel site. But his Bermuda Financial Centre Ltd later lost out to a rival plan by insurance giants ACE and XL.

The insider added: "Mike has a lot of experience. Susan doesn't have as much experience in a General Election situation.'' The insider added that any change would probably have been in the pipeline for some time. He said: "If it had anything to do with Pembroke West, I don't think anyone would have moved that quickly.''