The leader of the One Bermuda Alliance said last night that he would spend the next few days thinking about what comes next after the party was reduced to six MPs when it lost five seats in the General Election.

Craig Cannonier admitted he would think about his own political future after the OBA was trounced at the polls by 30 seats to six.

He said: “Well, let’s talk about that. We’ll talk about that. It’s too early right now. I don’t plan on going anywhere right now because we have built a dynamic team.

“So there are no plans, but I am going to sit down and take a few days and think about what it is I want to do next, and we’ll make some decisions from there.”

OBA MPs Leah Scott, the deputy leader, and Ben Smith, the shadow national security minister, lost their seats.

Seats vacated by Trevor Moniz, Jeanne Atherden and Sylvan Richards were also taken by the Progressive Labour Party.

Mr Cannonier said: “We always knew that Ben and Leah Scott were going to be fighting in those particular seats.”

He said the result in Pembroke West, where Marcus Jones finished second, was a big surprise.

The seat had been held by Ms Atherden, a former OBA leader.

Mr Cannonier said the low turnout also had an effect on the result.

He added: “Bermuda was saying now is not the time. We are talking about an election that was called on the shortest period of time that you could give — thirtysomething days — and people did not have the opportunity and time to really and truly get to know the candidates.

“For us, we already know that we are building. We are building a team, so we expect that in the next election we will fare far better.”

But he said: “To see the numbers so low, to see them down into 37, even not quite 40 per cent turnout, for me is a disappointment. It basically says that Bermuda did not want this election.”

Mr Cannonier added that the party would continue to act as the Opposition in Parliament — and examine the threat from the new Free Democratic Alliance.

He said: “The PLP went down to seven at one time, historically, so there is life after this here.

“For us it’s about we’ve got these great new candidates — now we have to give them the time to get out there and beat the street.”

Mr Cannonier believed that Free Democratic Movement candidates did affect the election results.

He said the FDM’s Cheryl Packwood in Hamilton South, did hit the OBA vote.

Mr Cannonier added: “Overall, for a fledgeling party that just started out, it was interesting numbers for them.”