Election of the day: Bermuda

Today, the British Overseas territory of Bermuda will elect a new House of Assembly. Bermuda’s parliamentary body is comprised of 36 seats, elected in via single member districts in a first past the post election. While there are 119 candidates total standing for office today, the two dominant parties are the Center-left Progressive Labour Party and the Center-right One Bermuda Alliance. Bermudans have, recently, been much more dutiful followers of Duverger’s law than the mother country; no third party or independent candidate has been elected to the House of Assembly since 1989 (when one of each did). Since a narrow center-right victory in 2012, the PLP has been dominant, winning 24/36 seats in 2017 and halving the OBA’s representation by winning 30/36 seats in 2020. The consensus expectation is for the PLP to lose seats but retain their majority. One interesting twist: Sir John Swan, a former Premier in the 1980’s and 90’s who led a center right party for which OBA is the clear successor, is standing for parliament as an independent, and encouraging voters to abandon the OBA, which he accuses of not trying to win, and throw their support behind independent candidates such as himself. Swan is fast-approaching 90 and I have no idea what, if any, sway he holds over the electorate. (If the answer is “more than a little but not a lot” this could be disastrous for any attempt to limit PLP domination, given the vicissitudes of FPTP.)

What are the key issues driving this election? Reader, I do not know. Swan’s complaints about PLP governance are pretty boilerplate stuff. It doesn’t seem to be a particularly contentious political environment at the moment. Readers with a deeper familiarity with the Bermudan political scene than I (should such persons exist) are encouraged to enlighten us.

For some additional Bermuda related content, here’s Jonathan Richman’s fun track “Down in Bermuda”, which explains the role played by a Modern Lovers Bermuda concert in his transformation from angsty Lou Reed-worshipping aspiring punk rocker to his more mature musical sensibility, which was an entertaining staple of his live shows in the 90’s and early 00’s.