Former One Bermuda Alliance chairman Thaddeus Hollis is to stand as an independent candidate in the General Election, he announced yesterday.

Mr Hollis, who resigned from the ruling party in July 2014, will run in Hamilton West, his home constituency, where the Progressive Labour Party’s Wayne Furbert is the incumbent.

Mr Hollis told The Royal Gazette: “Quite simply, I think that party politics has divided our community. It’s become a divisive way of keeping people apart, not bringing people together. I really do think as an independent, I can do a better job representing the voice of my constituents.”

Mr Hollis, a self-employed labour relations advocate and employment consultant, joined the One Bermuda Alliance in 2011, not long after it formed.

He became its chairman but resigned in July 2014, four days after releasing the findings of an investigation he conducted into the Jetgate controversy, which involved a $350,000 donation from overseas developers for the OBA’s 2012 election campaign.

Mr Hollis told this newspaper that after he resigned as party chairman, he never renewed his OBA membership and stopped attending its meetings, but it wasn’t as a direct result of Jetgate.

“I had enough,” he said, adding that the voluntary post of chairman was all-consuming and was impacting his ability to earn a living. “At the time, I was tired. It was a full-time job being the chairman.”

He described Jetgate — which led to the resignation of then premier, Craig Cannonier, and a fraud squad inquiry into the bank account of a fundraising group linked to the OBA as a “tempest in a teacup” and said the negative publicity did not affect him.

“I have taken knocks before, so that didn’t bother me,” he said, adding that he fulfilled his pledge to investigate the matter and make public his findings.

Since then, Mr Hollis said: “I have just sat back and watched the party politics become personal attacks, personal criticism, playing the race card when it’s convenient and when it’s not convenient — both parties do it to some degree.”

He said he was disillusioned with party politics as it no longer revolved around “putting Bermudians first”.

“As an independent, I am not bound to anyone, except the people that voted me in, my constituents,” he said.

He acknowledged that independent candidates rarely win seats in Bermuda, though he noted that Stuart Hayward managed to in 1989 when he ousted the UBP’s Clarence James in Pembroke West Central.

But Mr Hollis said he believed he stood a good chance against Furbert because people in his constituency craved change.

He said: “I have known Wayne for 40 years; I think he is a great guy. [But] he was the leader of the UBP and now he’s in the PLP — 40 years he has been involved in the UBP and the PLP and I really would like to see some change.”

He said it was interesting to see how Mark Pettingill and the late Shawn Crockwell were able to “hold” the House of Assembly after quitting the OBA to sit as independents, suggesting that those without party affiliations would be able to wield considerable power if the election was close.

Mr Hollis said he believed the OBA had “done the best it could with what it got in 2012” but had not focused enough on social issues. His election pledges include improved healthcare for seniors, reforms to the Employment Act and more help for single mothers. Simone Barton has been announced as the OBA candidate for Constituency 6, while Mr Furbert is expected to run again for the PLP.

Mr Hollis is the first independent to publicly declare a candidacy in this General Election, though former premier Paula Cox is being tipped to run in Devonshire North West and incumbent Mr Pettingill has not ruled himself out of the running for Warwick North East.

Parliamentary Registrar Tenia Woolridge said: “Candidates will be official after nomination day on July 4.”