The One Bermuda Alliance has come back from the precipice and is now going from strength to strength, its leader said yesterday.

Jarion Richardson was buoyed after the General Election on Tuesday, when the Opposition picked up four seats.

Although the gains were not enough to make a significant dent in the ruling Progressive Labour Party’s majority — 25 MPs to the OBA’s 11 in the House of Assembly — Mr Richardson said he left the election battlefield feeling “incredibly encouraged, incredibly positive”.

He said: “We have a political party that is strong, informed, aligned, clear in purpose and has stood up to many tests of its unity.

“We now have a political party that is not only ready to take on the challenges of the next five years but one that can build further on from that.”

Looking relaxed, Mr Richardson said that the party had not ruled out victory on Tuesday night, but was aware that there had been a mountain to climb.

Rather than see the defeat as a step back, he said it was another step forward for a party that has made strides since “that cold, dark election night” in October 2020 when the PLP won a massive 30-6 majority.

Asked what his goals had been ahead of the election this week, Mr Richardson said: “I had an open mind and I did think that it was possible for us to form the next government.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted but the election marks only the end of the beginning.

“After 2020 we had to rebuild the party pretty much from scratch while standing against a super majority.

“We have gone from being unable to put on a party conference to having one with 500 attendees.

“I cannot tell you how heart-warming and encouraging it is to have rebuilt this party so that it is now flourishing against headwinds that tried to make it non-existent.”

Asked why the OBA had been unable to significantly increase its vote count on Tuesday — the party garnered 9,133 votes compared 8,433 in 2020 — Mr Richardson claimed that those numbers did not prove that the party was not attracting new supporters.

He said: “Although the numbers may be similar, you don’t know whose vote you're counting.

“Through reform, the OBA has moved to the middle ground and we’re attracting a whole new set of voters.

“We’re a big tent party with a diverse group of people with a range of opinions. Anyone is welcome to walk up those steps and join.”

Mr Richardson said that the highlight of Tuesday night was seeing all three OBA candidates who earlier sat in the Senate — Robin Tucker, Dwayne Robinson and Douglas De Couto — get elected to the Lower House by winning in constituencies previously held by the PLP.

He added: “We are joined in the House by new MPs who are experienced legislators who have a proven track record of working effectively within the legislative framework, questioning the Government and amending legislation — they know where the bathrooms are.”

Mr Richardson said that the OBA was not caught out by when the election was called — David Burt, the Premier, could have waited until the autumn before taking the country to the polls.

Instead, he claimed the timing could work against the Government.

He said: “We were ready. As soon as we heard that a press conference had been called, we got our teams together and had responses out the next day.

“The Premier’s team didn’t look ready; they looked shocked at that press conference and they didn’t have a full slate of candidates.

“We’re now going into a Budget without a deputy premier or a clear Cabinet and with some inexperienced MPs who are not going to know their ministries.

“I think the timing of the election was more about David Burt than Bermuda.”

Mr Richardson also condemned the PLP for lowering the discourse of political debate by dismissing alternative views and launching personal attacks on opponents.

He cited the criticism that OBA candidate Michael Fahy endured as an example of the PLP’s tactics and efforts to redefine the OBA as something it was not.

Mr Richardson said: “The PLP and the talking heads focus on the small things, not the big things.

“If you look at the horizon, the bigger picture, the big issues are one in three people having food insecurity, 800 people homeless, a crumbling infrastructure, national debt, education reform that is a disaster.

“One cannot walk down the street without seeing boarded-up buildings and homeless people.

“That is the focus of the OBA and we have a great many people now who are focused on fixing these problems.”

Mr Richardson acknowledged that the large number of independent candidates may have had an impact on the final result after securing almost 10 per cent of the vote.

He was unsurprised that not one of the 26 independent candidates was able to win a seat.

He said: “Politics is a team sport.

“It doesn’t matter how good of an independent player you are, if you are on your own and playing against a team, you’re going to get squashed.”

He described the idea of a government made up of independent candidates as “an experiment” that the island could not afford to conduct.

Mr Richardson said: “Independent candidates may have their appeal but given the state of the Bermuda right now, we have so many problems and need solid, mature government.

“We need to start getting the basics right.”

The OBA will be holding a post-mortem and “after-action analysis” of the result before planning its next moves.

As for his own political future, Mr Richardson said the question of whether he should resign as leader was “not on my radar”.

He said that the OBA membership selected the party leader and could do so at its annual conference.

He said: “Anybody is welcome to challenge for the leadership.

“It’s a very rigorous, transparent process that requires the participation of the whole party. But Bermuda will never go to bed one night and wake up in the morning and suddenly find there’s a new leader of the One Bermuda Alliance.

“That would only happen if I were to stand down and I have no intention of doing so. There’s still too much work to be done.”