Election candidate Jonathan Starling wants Bermuda’s growing band of independents to join forces as they bid for shock victories.Mr Starling is one of nine independents fighting for a seat in the House of Assembly, compared with just two at the 2007 general election — a fact he says shows people are fed up of the two main parties.The Pembroke South West candidate noted many of his platform ideas mirror those of Phil Perinchief, another former Progressive Labour Party member now going it alone in Pembroke West Central, and suggested independents could form electoral alliances.Success for independents could help beat political and social divisions in Bermuda, according to Mr Starling, ultimately leading to a system where issues become treated more seriously than tribal loyalty to the PLP or One Bermuda Alliance.“In Bermuda, if the independents are able to come together and help echo their mutual interests, I think that's good and something to be encouraged — and something I fully support,” said Mr Starling.“I do think a big factor is a general disillusionment with the visions or experience of the two main parties.“There’s some doubt about the OBA in some quarters, be it about who they are or what their vision is beyond simply not being the PLP. And the PLP has let down a lot of people in their experience in power.“They’ve done some good things, but the perception of it being hijacked by opportunists or divided by factions, or simply being rather lacking in vision and to have strayed too far from its origins as a party of social justice and the people.“And both the PLP and the OBA have moved to very bland very central parties, ideologically, which are more focused on branding and attacking each other, that it’s left a vacuum and a desire among people for something new, something of substance, something that has a vision and that can help transcend our divisions.“So we see the rise of independents as an alternative. Perhaps it can be seen in terms of a social protest, manifested in political terms, as alternative candidates.“The existing options are disappointing, and so people are hoping to bring back diversity to the political sphere, and willing to step up to the wicket and do what they believe is necessary, to run as an alternative to the two parties, to offer a new discourse and narrative.“This disillusionment with the status quo of the two-party system, I don’t think it’s been so severe before. And of course the global economic collapse, and its particular manifestation in Bermuda, it’s certainly contributed to this.”Mr Starling said all independents share the need to expand the political discourse and move beyond existing divisions.“In other places it’s not unusual even to find an umbrella organisation which exists simply to help facilitate independents, irrespective of the political positions of the individual independents,” he said.“These organisations help to replace the party machinery that assists party candidates, in terms of the paperwork and some of the logistics involved, as well as in helping communicate the value and importance of independents.“Of course, it’s not unusual for individual independents to also share some common positions beyond the common one of the value of independents. A number of us, from what I’ve read, believe we need some serious political reforms, including fixed-term elections and some form of proportional representation.“In Parliament, we’d certainly work together on common positions, and working with fellow MPs in the parties too. Naturally, the more independents elected, the better in that we can work with each other.“So there can be electoral alliances between independents, or a common position of all independents putting forward the case for independents in our democracy, or even a bloc of independents in Parliament.“It’s even possible that out of this carnival of democracy that we see in this election that a new party can form in the aftermath of this election, although it would have to be a new form of party, one which moves beyond the limitations of the traditional parties.”Any new party should require sitting independents to resign and contest by-elections, Mr Starling added.Other independents include Kim and Charlie Swan, who are aiming to keep the seats they won for the United Bermuda Party at the last election in St George's West and Southampton West Central, David Tavares in Smith’s South, Tillman Darrell in Pembroke South East, Erwin Adderley in Pembroke West, David Petty in Pembroke South West and Cornell Fubler in St George’s North.Many people claim recent results show voting independent is pointless in a race dominated by two parties. In 2007, independent Roger Russell won just 43 votes in Pembroke West Central, and Harold Darrell 24 in Pembroke Central; a year later Khalid Wasi got 24 votes as an independent in a by-election for Southampton West Central.But Mr Starling, who began canvassing this week after returning to Bermuda from the UK, said: “There is still a lot of resistance to the idea of independents, but there is also a lot of people who are happy that their constituency has a wealth of choices in this election, and that they have alternative options.”He said independents can help stop parties taking the constituency for granted, and expand alternative visions which the parties dare not touch. His own platform includes decriminalising possession of small amounts of cannabis.“It’s better to vote for something you believe in, to vote positively, than to vote negatively, to vote against something,” he said.“Parties have their place, but so do independents, and they can play a crucial role in Parliament, offering independent voices and as facilitators within Parliament.“They are able to offer motions which the parties themselves may not make, but in doing so, they expand the political space, the political discourse, and can work with others in parliament, be they other independents or parties.“They can help transcend the divisions in our society and the divisions in our politics, and so help build a more consensual political system, a new politics beyond the traditional tribalism of party politics, of us versus them.”