Former Progressive Labour Party MP Julian Hall has urged his party?s leadership candidates to come out and fight in the open in a TV debate after claiming the election was being rigged by a clique.

And last night Ewart Brown, who is challenging Premier Alex Scott, claimed elements in the party could be trying to force branch delegates to vote in a bloc rather than by their own choice.

The decision on who becomes the next leader of the PLP will be taken next Friday by 100-plus delegates from 36 constituencies as well as 27 parliamentarians.

Dr. Brown told The Royal Gazette: ?I got a call from someone from an eastern branch complaining they had been told that their branch would be voting as a bloc, they were told that was the policy the executive committee had decided ? I said not to my knowledge.

?I don?t think that was the intention of the constitution. Can it be enforced? I don?t think so. I don?t think it will go that way at all. There was some talk about it but I can?t see it holding. I am not worried.?

Supporter Rolfe Commissiong said the attempt to rig votes smacked of desperation in the opponents? camp by trying to stop delegates from voting as their conscience dictates.

Such a device was not the PLP way said Mr. Commissiong who claimed Scott supporters were trying to insure there were no defectors.

?It speaks to the growing insecurity and growing desperation but I believe it?s backfired.?

PLP spokesman Scott Simmons could not be reached for comment although recently fellow spokesman Sen. Walter Roban said delegates might be selected by their branch chairman or MP.

Mr. Hall, who was an advisor to the Brown faction which turfed out sitting Premier Jennifer Smith in 2003, said he was concerned only a tiny portion of the general population will choose the leader of the PLP and ultimately the leader of the country.

?I don?t think this is a good thing but it is the way it is. I think it?s absurd that next Friday?s election will ultimately boil down to which camp has been able to engineer the appointment of the greater number of delegates.

?Many of those delegates will have been told who they are supposed to vote for ? told by one faction or the other to whom they feel some sense of loyalty.

?That is not a very reliable basis for the choosing your leader.

?The leader of the country should be chosen by the country or if not, the delegates should at least encourage the candidates to appear before the public, preferably together in some form of debate or debates, presenting their alternative vision for the country.?

He said supporters were urging Dr. Brown to go above the heads of the delegates, not to snub them, but ?in clear recognition he was asking to be the leader of the country?.

So far the campaign has been low key with neither candidate putting out a platform of issues although Dr. Brown is due to unveil his policies at a press conference this afternoon.

On Wednesday night both Alex Scott and Ewart Brown addressed a meeting of around 50 PLP supporters, mostly made up of Sandys delegates, at Sandys Secondary Middle School.

One of Dr. Brown?s supporters said his rolling campaign would go from one end of the Island to the other.

But Mr. Hall said both candidates should go on TV together or appear in public and have a debate setting out their policies.

?They should not rely on a so-called delegates conference made up of people who are not in the strictest sense delegates.

?These delegates should at least try to keep their ear as close to the ground in their constituency to ascertain what their constituents feel.?

The Royal Gazette asked both candidates on their views on a head to head debate.

When asked if he was in favour of a TV debate Dr. Brown said: ?Sure!?

However the Premier?s spokesman Beverle Lottimore said: ?I believe the general public knows what the Premier stands for.

?It might be more useful to have a one on one with Dr. Brown and have them understand what he stands for.?

Mr. Hall described the election as ?a parody at best of participatory democracy?.

He added: ?Unfortunately that is what we have got. It?s a fundamentally undemocratic approach and it fools nobody.

?At the end of the day any potential or actual leader needs to know ? do I have the support of the people? The system is wrong but it is the best we have to work with.

?One hopes the day will come the delegates will take their role seriously enough to recognise if there is a secret ballot they don?t have to vote the way they have been told by whoever engineered their selection,? Mr. Hall explained.

?They should say which of these two candidates has the better vision of Bermuda, which presents himself with the greatest consistency, honesty and courage in the best interests of the country??

?Or is this someone who can go off semi-despotically,? Mr. Hall continued, ?doing whatever they think without regard to what the people want or without regard to what some of his own colleagues are trying to tell him? I am putting this out very pointedly.?

He said if the leaders are going to be selected by delegates conference then there needed to be a better selection of delegates.

?Most party members aren?t even notified of the date for selection in their own constituency of the delegates.?

He said party activity had diminished under Jennifer Smith and Alex Scott.

?Ultimately these selections are taken from a tiny clique connected to the leadership. There is the reality of the ghost of Jennifer Smith who continues to loom large in the process.

?She?s still been quite busy, maybe she dreams of some kind of comeback. Pray to God that never happens.

?There is clear evidence she is moving front and centre to ensure her group in the form of Alex Scott continues to prevail.

?But at the end of the day it is not in the best of the party in the country.

?There is a mentality within that camp that says if we don?t have control we don?t care if the party dies.?

@EDITRULE:

Coming on Monday: Julian Hall on what he thinks of Alex Scott and Ewart Brown.