Shadow Attorney General Trevor Moniz says his possible election opponent Jonathan Smith is "morally wrong" to sit on the Public Service Commission while harbouring political ambitions.

Mr Smith was appointed to the PSC — the body which advises the Governor on Civil Service selections — in October 2009, two months after he joined the Progressive Labour Party.

He was picked by Governor Sir Richard Gozney on the recommendation of then-Premier Ewart Brown, with the backing of United Bermuda Party leader Kim Swan, after the UBP claimed the initial proposal Jane Correia was unsuitable because of her PLP background.

But Mr Moniz says the UBP was never made aware Mr Smith had joined the PLP — that announcement was only made in November.

Mr Smith is said to have recently been polled as a possible PLP candidate at the next General Election in Smith's West, the seat currently held by Mr Moniz.

Mr Moniz said yesterday: "A few short weeks after Jonathan Smith was appointed to the Public Service Commission he announced his allegiance to the PLP and that he was hopeful of becoming a candidate for them in the next election.

"In my view members of the PSC need to be non-political. Recently Jonathan has been polled as a possible election candidate for the PLP in the next General Election against me in Smith's West. More recently he was shown at the major PLP functions as a PLP member and maybe as a delegate.

"In my view it is clearly morally wrong of him, in those circumstances to continue as a member of the PSC. On the PSC justice must be seen to be done and he could not be seen as being anything but partisan. Justice could not be seen to be done to applicants before the Commission. Unfortunately Government jobs are often perceived as sweet rewards for camp followers of the PLP."

Mr Moniz said Grant Gibbons was a member of the PSC in the early 1990s but resigned when he decided to run as a candidate for the UBP.