The notion that a majority of ruling party MPs have final say on who is Premier is wrong, according to the Progressive Labour Party's (PLP) former Secretary General Walter Roban.

“They don't have such a power. They don't have it under the PLP constitution and they don't have it under the Bermuda Constitution,” he said.

Not all PLP supporters agree with Mr. Roban and Deputy Governor Tim Gurney is off the Island and could not be reached for comment.

But Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt agreed yesterday that a parliamentary vote of no confidence in the Government, with United Bermuda Party (UBP) support, is the only way dissident ruling party backbenchers could oust the Premier.

And that would likely force the Governor to dissolve Parliament and arrange a general election.

Last week, ruling party backbencher Wayne Perinchief, who supports a bid to replace Jennifer Smith as Premier, said that even if Ms Smith survives an expected challenge to her leadership of the party at a delegates conference in November, the party's parliamentarians can change the Premier if they wanted to because the Governor appoints the person who commands majority support in the House of Assembly.

“If the (PLP) parliamentarians want to change the Premier they can do it,” Mr. Perinchief said then. “Some delegates might have the misconception that if they select the party leader that person automatically becomes the Premier. That's not so.”

Political scientist Walton Brown agrees that a majority of the ruling party parliamentarians could change the Premier.

He said that if a majority of PLP MPs no longer supported the Premier and made that clear to Government House, the Governor would have to revoke the Premier's appointment.

Mr. Roban argues however, that the power to appoint the Premier is in the hands of the Governor alone and that the constitution does not allow MPs to remove the Premier.

“The MPs themselves cannot choose who is their leader,” said Mr. Roban. “They cannot of themselves cut out the Premier and have the Government continue. If they do that the whole Government falls.”

Besides, he said, the power to choose the party leader lies with the party's grassroots who choose delegates who, with the party's senators and parliamentarians, vote in party officers every two years at the annual delegates' conference.

He said the Governor would probably not respond to the dissident MPs' demands that the Premier resign - especially since it violates the rules of their own party.

A number of more senior party members may be under the misconception that the parliamentary group can choose their leader in the House, he said, because that was allowed by the PLP's constitution in the past.

But, said Mr. Roban, the provision was dropped from the constitution to avoid just the kind of separation that the dissident backbenchers say is likely.

“You don't go into an election without being clear as to who your leader is going to be,” he added. “Let's face it other Labour parties (such as the UK's) have a similar system.”

Mr. Brown says, however, that the PLP constitution is irrelevant when stacked against the Bermuda Constitution.

“We are talking about the Premier, the leader of the country, not the leader of the party. The two are very separate.”

According to the Bermuda Constitution the Governor can revoke the appointment of the Premier, and appoint someone else to form the Government, if a majority of all the parliamentarians pass a motion of no confidence in the Government. But the Governor has to act in consultation with the Premier and can dissolve parliament instead and send the country to the polls.

Effectively, a revolt against the Premier by the ruling party backbenchers would mean that they would have to be willing to work with the Opposition and undermine their own government.

“Our whole reason for existence is that we think we can do a better job,” said Mr. Barritt. “So we would be hard pressed not to support a vote of no confidence in the Government.”

But he added : “These guys are just talking. They are jockeying and posturing and it amounts to nothing unless they put some motion down. Are they counting on someone else to do their work for them?”

Mr. Roban pointed out that there is no provision under either the House rules or the Bermuda Constitution that specifically allows a no confidence vote in the Premier, and he said a vote in May by his party's parliamentary group calling for the Premier's resignation would not have been recognised by the Governor because it was not a parliamentary vote.

“And even if it was, it has to be a parliamentary vote of no confidence in the Government not just in one person. So their action in May had no material consequences whatsoever.”

Still, says Walton Brown, if a majority of the PLP parliamentarians wrote to the Governor saying they could no longer support the Premier, he would have to respond to prevent “instability and un-governability”.

The Constitution says nothing about rebel MPs writing to the Governor. But the Governor would be faced with a “political conundrum” and could respond by telling the dissident MPs to go back to the House and move a no confidence motion, Mr. Brown said. Or he could ask someone else to form the Government.