calling for a boycott of the Independence referendum, its chairman said yesterday.

"We'll make our position clear just before the referendum,'' Mr. Walton Brown said.

Between now and August 15, Mr. Brown said he wanted to see if Government would announce any plans for electoral reform under Independence before deciding to cancel his earlier call for a "yes'' vote.

Until now, Mr. Brown's committee has been at odds with the Progressive Labour Party in calling for a "yes'' vote to Independence. The PLP, which has dismissed Mr. Brown's committee as a group of two or three people with "no constituency'', is calling for a boycott.

Mr. Dale Butler, a leading member of the group, recently announced he was supporting the PLP's campaign and not supporting the committee's policy.

Yesterday, Mr. Brown -- who claims his group has an 11-member executive and 120 paid members -- said he has grown very "ambivalent, confused and disillusioned with the whole process'' since Government's position papers on Independence were made public.

In them, the United Bermuda Party Government failed to address "fundamental issues'' like the replacement of dual-seat constituencies with single-seat ones, and the creation of voting constituencies of equal size.

He was also concerned that Government's handling of the Independence issue had created confusion and "a stacked deck'' against a "yes'' outcome. The requirement that 40 percent of all registered voters would have to say "yes'' amounted to a "`minority veto,'' he said.

Government's failure to take a stand for or against Independence was also "wholly inadequate''.

The referendum seemed "very likely to lead to a no vote,'' and the committee had to decide whether a no vote with a strong turn-out would do too much damage to the Independence cause, he said.

A high abstention rate could be interpreted as showing that people were not so much against Independence, as the way the issue was handled, he said.

Mr. Brown also said that the maximum upfront cost of Independence of $2.3 million outlined in Government's Green Paper on the issue was "woefully inadequate.'' He felt the initial cost would have to be "quadrupled'', to about $10 million.

As for the annual ongoing costs, they would be "substantially less,'' and "might even be less than $5 million a year,'' he said.