Legislation which would have given the Parliamentary Registrar more power to track improperly registered voters was shot down on Friday.

The Parliamentary Election Amendment Act 2010, tabled by Opposition MP John Barritt, failed after Government refused to discuss the matter.

Premier Ewart Brown told MPs the matter was already under review by Cabinet. "The review began last week," he said. "As such, we will not be able to comment on this."

Despite the Premier's statement, Mr. Barritt continued to push the bill, saying: "I still feel I have the right to bring the bill forward."

The proposed amendment would have given the Registrar the ability to correct the electoral register and, when warranted, remove a person from the register.

"The Registrar himself feels that there could be as many as 2,000 people on the Island registered in the wrong constituency," Mr. Barritt said. "People do move, and it's not first on their to-do list to change their registration.

"We all know that some constituencies are closer than others. In those, the votes are extremely valuable. The temptation is to leave your vote wherever it is most valuable.

"That is what we have to address. I think [the Registrar] is doing his best but he needs the power to move things along."

BDA MP Mark Pettingill compared the bill to the Municipalities Reform Act, which had passed hours earlier, as both were intended to improve democracy.

"It is a safeguard for democracy for all of our constituencies," he said. "Hopefully the model will be seen sometime down the road, if it doesn't move forward tonight."

Opposition Leader Kim Swan also stressed the importance of the bill, saying he had in the past both won a seat in an election by only 17 votes and lost by only 20.

"There are those of us who are looking at every vote very critically because it matters come election day," he said. "We should do what's best for Bermuda and make the playing field fair."

Opposition MP Grant Gibbons said the issue had vexed the UBP for some time. While he said it was a good sign the Cabinet was looking at the issue, he suggested more be done to take the electoral register out of the hands of the politicians.

"Technically, the registrar is supposed to be independent," he said. "Perhaps the Government needs to look at the possibility of an independent Election Committee."

While Mr. Barritt said he had hoped to get some input from the Government, no PLP MPs spoke on the issue.

When brought to a vote the amendment failed, with UBP and BDA MPs voting in favour of the motion and the Government MPs voting against it.