Dozens, if not hundreds, of people may lose their chance to vote if they go ahead with vacation plans this summer.

A number of Bermudians regularly schedule holidays abroad during July and August to coincide with the long Cup Match holiday weekend and when their children are on summer break from school.

With an advance poll date set one week before the July 24 poll - itself a week before Cup Match - locals have already called The Royal Gazette offices to say that they won't have a chance to vote at all. This could happen if July 17, the only alternative voting date for people off the Island on election day, and July 24 (Election Day) came during your vacation.

The Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP) says that if the ruling party hadn't “hijacked” their proposals for an absentee ballot, everyone would be in a position to vote in the country's first single seat elections. And there is some suspicion among Opposition supporters that the Premier's call was a cynical plot against their party.

PLP spokesman Walter Roban said that lots of Bermudians travel all the time, and it was not necessarily the case that people of one political affiliation travel more than others. “People of a wide variety of backgrounds travel during this time of the year. Everybody knows that,” said Mr. Roban.

“In no way has the Premier's call for the general election been an effort to disenfranchise anyone. The party's record of the past five years of Parliamentary reform has shown that we have made every attempt to widen the franchise.”

The extent of the problem is unclear. One official at the Department of Immigration told this newspaper that July and August were by far the most popular times for Bermudians to travel. Chief Immigration Officer Martin Brewer later vetoed that with official silence, saying that the department did not have the figures and suggested we contact travel agents.

Collector of Customs Winifred deSilva said that November was in fact the peak month for locals to travel off Island.

One major Hamilton travel agency said July and August was their peak season for business with locals and that this year in particular was quite heavy because plans postponed due to the war were being resurrected for the summer.

Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons jumped at the opportunity to criticise the Government side. “As you know we pushed very strongly to get in place an absentee ballot measure,” Dr. Gibbons said.

Late last year Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt attempted to bring a motion seeking in principle support for an absentee ballot. It was sent back to the drawing board by House Speaker Stanley Lowe because it contained drafting errors.

In the interim, Premier Jennifer Smith moved a take note motion that Government had set up a committee to study and make recommendations on changes to the law which would broaden the franchise.

Mr. Lowe eventually struck Barritt's motion off the order sheet because, he ruled, the two dealt with substantially the same matter. Some six months later, and just weeks before she was to announce the July 24 election date, Ms Smith tabled an interim report of the new committee which said that a postal vote would be seriously considered.

The report led to some speculation that the election would be called in November after the changes had been put through. The latest Census indicates that there are about 750 housebound people in Bermuda, and between 750 and 900 studying overseas.

The figures represent about five percent of the Island's eligible voters.

The PLP has always criticised the UBP for holding elections while people studying overseas were off the Island. And Premier Jennifer Smith cited the overseas students as a reason for a summer election when the date was announced this week.

But while there are provisions for people in institutions to vote, there are no provisions for the housebound or people who cannot avoid being off the Island on advance polling day as well as election day.

Dr. Gibbons said the issue was much broader than students being away. “Clearly what Government has done is to bury this absentee ballot initiative by putting into committee,” he said. “I think it was done to purposely frustrate the United Bermuda Party but what it's really done, I think, is it has frustrated the ability of a lot of people who would like to travel during the summer to be able to have their natural right which is to vote in the next election.” A postal ballot could have been put in place by now, he added.

One woman called this newspaper to say that she believed the Premier's timing was a cynical strategic move that would benefit the PLP because, she said, UBP supporters were more likely than PLP supporters to be able to afford to travel.

“A lot of UBP supporters might be people that have a lot more money and can afford to travel,” said the woman who did not want to be named. She admitted that it might well be an “ignorant statement” because she had not researched it properly.

“It's very difficult to say,” said Dr. Gibbons when that was put to him. “I think Bermuda is a place where a lot of people travel and I think that's regardless of political affiliation.” He would not buy into the theory that the Premier had made a cynical strategic move.

“I try not to attribute motives to people,” he said. “But I think the Smith Government has made a statement by burying it in committee and not moving ahead with it.”

Mr. Roban said he sympathised with voters who found themselves out of luck because of travel plans, but he had met PLP supporters this week who had the same complaint. He said instituting a postal system took time and could not be done without careful study.

“All we have to do is to look at what happened in November, 2000 with the presidential election in the US to understand the gravity of the postal system and the impact it could have. We as a community with little experience with these different methods of voting must first carefully study them before giving consideration to what will work for Bermuda. So I disagree with Dr. Gibbons that it could be very flippantly put in place. A trivial motion could not have addressed it sufficiently.

“The question should be asked of the UBP why did they not give this issue careful study when they were in Government?”