An independent election candidate running in Warwick South East (Constituency 24) pledged to bring “advocacy, consultation and transparency” to Parliament if she is elected.

Lauren Francis, a former civil servant with more than 20 years of experience, said that she felt inspired to run so she can make the island better for her nine-year-old daughter.

She added: “I am here because I am as frustrated as you are.

“I am here because I want to shift my passion for public service in a way that enables me to better understand what is at the heart of some of our problems and be the change that I want to see.

“I want to connect directly with the people and be an advocate for a better Bermuda.”

Ms Francis had worked in court services as a senior probation officer and a co-ordinator for the Drug Treatment Court since the early 2000s.

She was called to the Bermuda Bar in 2011, and served as a policy analyst for the Government.

By the time she resigned last Thursday, she had served as a Parliamentary draftsman who turned policy into law for 13 years.

Ms Francis said that her years as a civil servant gave her insight into “how the machine worked from the inside”.

She said that she wanted to bring transparency and more communication to the public about the inner workings of Parliament.

Ms Francis said that, if she is elected, she plans to tackle gang culture, the cost of living, healthcare costs and education.

She said that her time as a probation officer showed her the extent to which gang ties prevented people from moving on with their lives because they could not work or study in certain areas.

She added that services for assisting against drug addiction, often a by-product of gang culture, were “grossly underfunded”.

Ms Francis acknowledged that these were complex problems.

She added: “No party government so far has been able to solve the issues preventing so many of us from thriving.

“No party government has properly identified the precise contributing factors, and I know I am not alone in wondering how do we solve these big problems when seemingly simple mandates go so wrong?”

Ms Francis will run against Lawrence Scott, who held the seat for the Progressive Labour Party in 2020, and Tarik Smith, of the One Bermuda Alliance.

• Comments are closed on political content from February 1 to February 19 to stem the flow of purposefully inflammatory and litigious comments during the General Election cycle. Users who introduce extreme partisan comments into other news content will be given a two-week timeout