The United Bermuda Party was founded on August 21, 1964, marking the beginning of a fierce, often bitter, two-horse race which would consume Bermuda’s political scene for nearly four decades.A year earlier, the Progressive Labour Party had become the Island’s first political party, putting forward nine candidates at the 1963 general election, six of them winning seats in the House of Assembly.In 1964, under the leadership of Bank of Bermuda head Sir Henry Tucker, 24 Members of Parliament responded by forming the UBP and seizing an unofficial majority in the House.Opponents have long claimed this was the white elites’ way of clinging onto power against the political emergence of the mainly black working class.Over the next four years, black members such as ET Richards were recruited to the UBP as Bermuda’s political landscape was developed with new constituencies drawn up under a dual-seat system.The first election under this system took place in 1968, with the UBP winning 30 of the 40 seats and Sir Henry made Premier.Sir Henry, who publicly predicted the PLP wouldn’t win power until the 21st century, was credited with dismantling segregated schooling, before resigning as party leader in December 1971.He was replaced as leader by ET Richards who duly became Bermuda’s first black Premier while John Swan took over Sir Henry’s Paget East constituency, a mainly white UBP stronghold.Many saw this as a signal blacks would be given prominent positions in the UBP.Critics claim it was a cynical ploy, with the late Julian Hall writing in 2008: “The proposition advanced by Sir Henry was that by giving up a little political power to the blacks of Bermuda, white Bermudians could continue as a racial grouping to maintain control of all economic power.”However, current UBP leader Kim Swan recently argued: “The Bermuda Sir Henry Tucker left us in 1971 when he retired from politics was far better than the overtly racist and segregated Bermuda that he found in 1938 when he entered politics.“By 1971, when Sir Henry retired, Bermuda had been transformed constitutionally, making legislative reforms and initiating major social change which improved Bermuda and removed the deliberate barriers of segregation.”Mr Swan described Sir Henry as the architect of modern Bermuda. Ironically, in the dying days of the UBP, Sir Henry has been selected as a National Hero; the party he built will likely have disbanded by the time the award is officially proclaimed in June.Over the next decade, the UBP won three more elections, but by a gradually decreasing margin, and with a different leader each time.In 1972, under ET Richards, the UBP won 30 seats; in 1976, under John Sharpe, it won 26 seats; in 1980, under David Gibbons, it was down to 22 when a record high turnout saw the PLP grab 18.But in 1982, with the election of John Swan as party leader and Premier, the momentum began to swing back in favour of the UBP.A year into his reign, Mr Swan called an election, with the UBP picking up 26 seats amid discontent in the PLP ranks towards Opposition leader Lois Browne-Evans.More PLP internal fighting led to six members being expelled in 1985, with four of them forming the National Liberal Party.Mr Swan took advantage of the disarray by calling a snap election at which the UBP won 31 seats, more than any party has achieved before or since.Heralded as one of Bermuda’s best Premiers and knighted, Sir John negotiated the US/Bermuda Tax Convention that set the stage for growth of international business.However, during the rest of his 13-year tenure, the UBP’s lead slowly returned to its previous level. In 1989, the UBP won 23 seats, and in 1993 it was down to 22. Many put the fact the UBP retained power throughout this period down to Sir John’s ability to attract young blacks who would otherwise have been major players in the PLP.Sir John’s reign ended dramatically when he lost a campaign for Independence in 1995, after the PLP had boycotted a referendum.He was succeeded by David Saul, who was censured by the House following a motion supported by rebel UBP MPs and lasted just two years. Dr Saul’s early negotiations with UK Prime Minister John Major are said to have paved the way for Bermudians getting the right to full British Citizenship.His resignation meant Pamela Gordon stepped up to become Bermuda’s first female Premier and, at 41, also the youngest.By now, however, there was no stopping the PLP bandwagon, as the perennial bridesmaids swept to power on an emotional and historic night under Jennifer Smith in November 1998, taking 26 seats to the UBP’s 14.Some say the UBP should have fallen on its sword there and then; an organisation set up by politicians already in power, it had managed the Country for 30 years but didn’t seem to match its rival’s ability to capture the imagination of the public and rally behind a common cause.Bermuda Sun columnist Larry Burchall has likened the UBP’s efforts to survive to “the old time movie cowboy who, when shot, would clutch his chest, expend a great deal of energy staggering about, then fall down, and with his last dying breath make some theatrical statement”.The UBP was well beaten in 2003 and 2007, picking up just 14 seats each time, while the PLP, despite widespread criticism from the public and a string of high profile controversies, continued to win comfortably at the polls.Since 2001, Grant Gibbons, Wayne Furbert, Michael Dunkley and Kim Swan have all had stints as leader but none have been able to arrest the slide.The 2007 election saw the most racially charged campaign so far, with PLP leader Ewart Brown vowing to crush his evil enemy in a series of angry speeches.MP Jamahl Simmons and Chairman Gwyneth Rawlins both quit, saying a white clique was running the show, while black UBP members were labelled puppets of white elitists; the UBP faced accusations it was attempting to trick voters into thinking it was more diverse than it really was by fielding a disproportionately high number of black candidates.That third defeat was so demoralising it ultimately meant Dr Brown’s promise would come true although there were a few more twists along the way.Former leader Mr Furbert was the first of five MPs to quit, eventually crossing the floor to join the PLP, as the UBP refused his calls for reform; fellow reformist Darius Tucker quit to stand as an Independent.Shawn Crockwell, Donte Hunt and Mark Pettingill were the next to resign, saying they were sick of the race-based politics they believed was being perpetuated by the UBP’s legacy as white and elitist.Those three attempted to break the two-horse race by forming their own party, the Bermuda Democratic Alliance, in January last year.But from the beginning they were dubbed the “NewBP”, as the PLP made repeated references to their UBP background and dismissed them as a mere youth wing of the established Opposition.The writing was on the wall as early as last December’s Warwick South Central by-election, when the PLP retained its healthy percentage of the vote while the UBP and BDA scrapped over the rest.Observers warned if that happened at every seat at the next general election, the PLP would end up getting 30 seats or more.As negotiations between rival Opposition MPs got under way, some said it was always going to be just a matter of time before the two sides got back together again; the UBP’s central committee confirmed that overwhelmingly at a vote on Tuesday.But, while most of the main players will be the same, in name at least the United Bermuda Party will soon be no more.