By-Election To Be Held In C#33 Sandys South
The retirement of Independent MP Terry Lister paves the way for a by-election in Constituency #33 Sandys South, a constituency that has been voting for the PLP for the past few decades.
Mr. Lister — who has represented Sandys South since he was first elected in 1998 – announced yesterday [Sept 23] that he will be retiring from politics.
Saying that “retire is what you do after the involvement has run its course and has now come to an end,” Mr. Lister said he is “now content to retire and to make it possible for another committed person to serve the people of Sandys South.”
First appointed by the PLP to the Senate in 1993, Mr Lister has represented Constituency #33 Sandy’s South since he was first elected to Parliament in 1998, and has served in various positions in Cabinet.
He put himself up for Party Leader twice in recent years, both times being defeated during internal PLP elections, first by Paula Cox and then by Marc Bean, and in February 2013, Mr. Lister announced his resignation from the PLP, stating that he will sit in the House as an Independent.
13-minute video of Mr. Lister’s full press conference yesterday
When asked would there be a by-election, Mr Lister said, “Yes, the Premier will have to take the responsibility of meeting with the Governor, setting a date, and calling a by-election.”
Mr. Lister was first elected as a PLP MP in 1998, and retained the seat in the 2003, 2007 and 2012 General Elections; and prior to the change to single-seat constituencies, Sandys South elected two representatives, with Walter Lister and Walter Roberts winning consecutive elections under the PLP’s banner.
Past Election Results In Sandys South
The past election results of Sandys South show the area has, up until this time, always voted for the PLP.
The 2012 General Election saw Terry Lister win 56.62% [516-397] of the vote against the OBA’s Toni Spring who received 43.48% of the vote.
The 2007 General Election saw Terry Lister win 60.96% [556-346] of the vote against the UBP’s Alvin Wilson who received 39.04% of the vote.
The 2003 General Election saw Terry Lister win 62.00% of the vote against the UBP’s Ted Gauntlett who received 38.00% of the vote.
The 1998 General Election saw the PLP’s Terry Lister and Walter Lister win with 1,304 and 1,285 votes – compared to 438 and 438 for the UBP’s Rita Grant and Ted Gauntlet.
The 1993 General Election saw the PLP’s Walter Lister and Walter Roberts win with 1,144 and 1,109 votes – compared to the 466 and 447 for the UBP’s Ralph Richardson and Ted Gauntlet.
The 1989 General Election saw the PLP’s Walter Lister and Walter Roberts win with 955 and 949 votes – compared to 411 and 428 for the UBP’s John Harvey and L. Scott, and 68 for the NLP’s Roseclair Evans.
The 1985 General Election saw the PLP’s Walter Lister and Walter Roberts win with 737 and 730 votes – compared to 486 and 489 for the UBP’s Lawrence Scott and John Harvey, and 84 for the NLP’s Rose Evans.
The 1983 General Election saw the PLP’s Walter Lister and Walter Roberts PLP win with 900 and 904 votes – compared to 579 and 602 for the UBP’s Kim Swan and John Harvey.
The 1980 General Election saw the PLP’s Walter Lister and Walter Roberts win with 873 and 892 votes – compared to 599 and 599 for the UBP’s Colin Pearman and Paul Leseur.
The 1976 General Election saw the PLP’s Walter Lister and Walter Roberts win with 744 and 771 votes – compared to 335 and 310 for the UBP’s Asquith Phillips and Marlene Butterfield.
The 1972 General Election saw the PLP’s Walter Roberts and Eugene Cox win with 677 and 668 votes – compared to 321 and 345 for the UBP’s Asquith Phillips and Junius Burrows.
Upcoming By-Election
With Mr. Lister just having announced his resignation yesterday, neither party has announced a candidate yet, however both can be expected to field one. The date of the by-election has also not been established yet, but is expected to be announced at a later date.
The OBA won the 2012 General Election with 19 seats to the PLP’s 17, however Mr. Lister resigned from the PLP last year and sat as an Independent, changing the breakdown in the House to 19 OBA, 16 PLP and 1 Independent, which stands to change again following the upcoming by-election.
Thanks for the history recap Bernews!
I say just hand the seat to the PLP as it is one of their safe seats and lets not waste the money on such a waste of time election. Not only will it save money but it will also save the middle of the road Bermudian voters from hearing the bickering back and forth between the usual suspects on here and other media outlets.
No chance for the OBA in this constituency IMO.
Thanks again Mr. Lister for your level headed approach to politics. You are one of the few honorable members of the House and you will be missed.
All it takes is 60 people to change their vote.
A strong, hard working OBA candidate could do that easily – if not now then next election.
60 votes in a given constituency is a LOT for Bermuda. The PLP will be fighting over this seat that they should win….rightly or wrongly. I hope I’m proven wrong.
Oh I disagree!
Elections bring out the ugliest parts of us. We get to disgorge our innards for all to see and sit about criticizing one another even more than usual. I’m looking forward to the racist innuendo and shameless bull that characterizes Bermudian political discourse and explains in clear and certain terms why our system is such an embarrassing, dysfunctional parody of itself. After all we build it every day.
I can’t wait.
I agree that the history recap was very useful, so useful in fact that it showed a steady decline in percent of the votes that Mr. Lister received in each of the elections dating back to 2003. Although he’s won every time, he keeps loosing votes to his opponents therefore it is my opinion that this is anyone’s race as the right candidate for the OBA can swing this seat.
I agree, “…the right candidate for the O.B.A. can swing this seat”. Give all the people room while they are in the process of change! Remember, what a former P.L.P. Premier had taken for granted with her “safe seat” in Devonshire…
IDK. PLP’s ‘safe seat’ has gone from 75% majority (’98) to 62% (’03), to 60.96% (’07) to 56.62% (’12).
Hush bye and all you all oba supporters because if he had gone back to the PLP you all would be crying Terry down and what a horrible man he is and how much him tief.
Charlton?
Hopefully Bermudians will vote for a person with a successful Business background.
Government is a “BIG” Business and should be run like one.
We have had enough of the Plunderers and the BloodSuckers.
PLP will win it easily. Won’t need to break a sweat.
the candidate actually had to work for the seat and explain to the consituents what the PLP as Gvt would do that was different than during their past tenure and how the “party” planned on moving its platform into the 21st century.
Each candidate should have to work for it–if they do–they will work for the people one elected.
Politics in general is a nasty business–its down right ugly here in Bermuda.
Mr. Lister has paid that price over the years and most recently at the hands of the leader of the PLP but he continued to do his part to make Bermuda a better place.
Thank you Mr. Lister for your many years of service to our country.
As a #33 Area Voter, I can safely say that any OBA candidate put forward in this area has a long, hard, up-hill battle to secure this seat for the government. The decline in votes over the years for Mr. Lister are reflective of the lack of faith persons had in the government of the day, NOT MP Lister.
Again, for clarity sake, the OBA, if they want this seat, will have some serious work to put in before November.
#33 Voter
I agree. It’s important for the democratic process to function, but if there ever was a forgone conclusion this by-election is it. A PLP landslide on this one!
Interesting comment. Unfortunately you are correct. The OBA have to do all the work to win the seat and the PLP basically will not have to work hard. It would be nice if all the candidates had to work hard for the people they served….
Someone mentioned the Charlton.
Lord I hope not.
And I am serious.
Wow,I hope the OBA representative wins!
Mid term of course the PLP will win easily. No surprise.
Anyone noticed that Kim Swan once ran for this seat? Something tells me that PLP might probably – I said probably – ask him to run here again.
PLP safe seat or not, there was only a 119 vote difference in the 2102 General election out of 913 votes casted. The final vote count of this bye election would certainly indicate the pulse of how the people feel towards either party today. I am looking forward to it.
Can an independent run?
Sure. They’d get fewer than 10 votes, but there’s nothing stopping anyone from throwing their hat in the ring.
Mr.Charlton the WEDCO Chairman could win.
The people in Somerset like him because he is grassroots and got their backs.i am not sure but I think he ran against Mike Scott in another Sandys constituency. He could win any seat in Somerset,given the chance as he is a man of the people. Hopefully whoever is chosen to run there,the OBA will be the winner.
what are you smoking
Not as far fetched as you would like to make out. Ray Charlton lost by only 8 votes in 2012 against Michael Scott.
Bob Richards has said that money doesn’t grow on trees, but is there enough money in the OBA/UBP war chest to attempt to buy #33? Maybe not! But Shawn is presently abroad meeting with all kinds of investors .
This by-election coming on the heals of the finance minister rejecting the seniors an increase has sealed the fate of any OBA /UBP victory in #33 .
BRING IT ON !!!
Answered yourself… they are not buying the election….just making the tough decisions.;.not as many as they should be…but some.
Coffee/We all know you’re Christopher. Wouldn’t that $45M spend on Grand Atlantic really helped our seniors. When the heck were you aka Coffee what that was going down? Feeding at the trough too?
I do like their enthusiasm tho! Lol!
Govt cannot be run like a big business. This is a fallacy and a divisive talking point since 1998. Govt is not a for-profit organization and many Departments do not generate revenue. If big businesses are such the panecea and model then none should fail. Big businesses do not care about social programs or the needy. Which is why this current Govt clashes with such a philosophy because that’s all they are about, for profit and certain sectors of the community not all. Promoting perfume (a private company) in NYC?. Please..
Let me help you a bit there .
If a business forks out more than it takes in , it’s broke .
After 14 glorious years of PLP financial ineptitude , yep , we’re broke !
You and a lot of other people might have hated the fact that we never had a deficit when gov’t was run like a business under the bad old UBP , or you just hated that it was the UBP more likely.
But how are all those 14 years of wonderful social programs working out for us ?
We are not one bit better ‘socially’ now than we were in November 1998.
That may be true.
But a Government also cannot continue to incur annual deficits of $350mn a year and our small economy also cannot withstand the debt that we currently find ourselves buried under. The results are there for eveyone to see terms of the need for reductions across the board. And the fact that now the civil service wages and interest payments on debt now account for approx. TWO THIRDS of Government revenue means there is little to nothing left for social programs and/or investments in BDA’s infrastructure.
So you can complain about the austerity being implemented now all you like, but you better point the finger where it belongs. That is to the PLP’s massive mismanagement of Government’s finances between 2005 and 2012. The figures tell the story and cannot be dismissed.
Actually you are wrong. Many successful NFP are using business models to be more effective. Just because there is not a “profit” motive persay govt can be run well and not be a drain on the purse. If Bermuda had oil would we spend every dollar made each year or would we have a national wealth fund like Norway which accumulates wealth for the people. Don’t be fooled.
The margins are skewed as there was a boundary adjustment in place for the 2012 election! Nothing to do with how the constituents voted. The PLP supporters did not have a change of heart.
The PLP moved boundaries to assist themselves and still lost.
There were lots of fence sitters in 2012. How many sat in #33? Surely the destruction caused by the PLP has sunk into those fence sitters by now. Hopefully no matter what the colour of skin the OBA candidate has, the people of #33 can vote on vote on party performance.
A no brainer really.
There are a good number of people who didn’t vote out of dissatisfaction with the PLP but couldn’t bear to vote for the OBA either. They may show up to send a message, too.
Precisely the people I am thinking of. By now it should be obvious to them that the PLP was an utter failure & should not be let back in for a long long time.
I think most will vote OBA in the bye election,the PLP/UBP have no solutions to our problems.
Interesting…… I Think it could go either way. PLP/UBP or OBA/UBP. A lot will depend on who shows up for the bi-election.
Toodles.. you and I both know that the playing fields were (are) far different in the Bermuda oligarchy business models. Triminghams and HA&E Smiths were broke for years yet how did they continue to ‘survive’? Umm maybe with a buddy system credit line despite the poor ratios until HSBC stepped in and sent them crack-a-lackin. Private businesses are not going to step in to help an employee find housing, pay for food, etc. Govt will. Borrowing is sometimes necessary for Govt as well. Comparing Govt to private business is so nonsensical and this type of talk with its coded language creating division and tension between civil servants and ‘other more efficient private business workers’ only started since 1998 let’s be real. You never heard such talk at such levels before then.
Oh and regarding improved social programs since 1998? The list is endless Toodles. How’s that FutureCare working for folks? They seem to like it now huh? How about we take back the garbage collection to once a week because we had that for decades before the PLP became Govt. New and amended changes in old legislation too numerous to mention (e.g. finally getting rid of the racist leaning law of incarcerating someone because they did not have a ‘fixed abode’.) The one thing the PLP were not good at that I will admit to was tooting their own horn for the countless of improvements to social programs that were done during their time.
The best social program is one where everyone who wants one has a job. We used to have that. But the PLP killed that particular tradition stone dead.
Jamot , can you ever hope to get at least one thing right ?
We did not have once a week garbage collection for ‘decades’. Check the facts please. Furthermore ,I might add that as unpopular as it might be we could with a little personal sacrifice and discipline go back to once a week collection.
It was originally done as a cost saving measure but if no-one from W&E ever got laid off ,which they didn’t , there was no saving.
Things could soon change though , pay attention .
And no one’s ever been locked up for being ‘of no fixed abode’ . You are more than likely letting you emotionalism confuse you .There have been plenty of people convicted of crimes , who also happened to have a list of previous convictions as long as your arm who also happened to be of not fixed abode, get jailed. I do however fully understand the connection to that term and the old law of ‘wandering abroad’ which dates back to pre 1843 .
Again I ask you to actually demonstrate how better we are ‘socially’ after 14 years of ineptitude under a government that was supposed to be so very socially minded.
Crime still rampant , people still homeless and living in cars and caves , dysfunctional people still creating dysfunctional offspring , sexual assaults against minors and violent children assaulting all and sundry , children not taking advantage of their ‘free’ government education. Drug and gang problems and plenty of out of control and lawless people in plain sight on the streets every day .
Oh yeah , we’re sooo much better off socially then we were pre Nov 1998. The only thing is now we each collectively owe government over $40,000 each .
Also, please note how Liar Liar set you straight a few posts below .
If you think that is the one thing that the PLP was/is not good at then you have had your head buried deep in our pink sand for a very very long time.
Also maybe the private BNTB should give back the bail out money the PLP (Govt) helped them with… smh
No money ever changed hands so there is nothing to hand back.
It was simply a guarantee and given the bank’s much improved balance sheet and income statement it will never be utilized.
The Government actually charges a small % fee for the guarantee and as such receives income from the scheme.
Who told you THAT? LOL It just shows that you can make stuff and PLP supporters will drink it up.
@ serengeti. Sorry but it still comes down to racist and prejudiced hiring practices of *ahem* PRIVATE businesses which shamefully continue to take place before and after PLP. And I dare you to prove otherwise. Bdians who are told to study and get superior educational credentials in many instances which they successfully obtain are still told they are not good enough and they end up working in less than ideal areas due to foreigners continuing to block them due to the constantly shifting goal posts in the job descriptions to keep them out. Many foreigners are HR managers in these lucrative businesses. Who will they hire you think? This has been happening since time eternal. I have seen it first hand I know what I am talking about. This is not simply rhetoric. So simply having a ‘job’ is not the answer especially if that ‘job’ does not pay well and cuts you short of your dream of owning your own piece of the rock while foreign wages and foreign subsidized housing continue to give the Bdians angst.
HR managers in iB are more often than not, Bermudian. There are thousands of people these days in great jobs that used to be done by people on permits. The threat to Bermudian jobs comes from the PLP, whose main platform is right-wing nationalistic anti-foreigner hate speech.
It occurs to me that it is totally pointless voting for a PLP candidate. The PLP have already said that they will boycott parliament until the Governor is recalled. That doesn’t appear likely to happen, so PLP will presumably keep their promise and not attend parliament. So it doesn’t appear worth voting for a PLP candidate, and he / she won’t be taking part in the running of Bermuda. It will be a wasted vote.
Sandy’s north and south has traditionally been in the PLP’s hands since the 70′s!! Lets see if the OBA can put-up a good, solid candidate for this by-election and finally break the PLP Sandy’s spell!!
I remember when “Flip” Galloway held the seat for the UBP many years ago!!