over ballot box security, MPs say.

Government backbencher Mr. Rick Spurling said he had heard such concerns "two or three times from various sources.'' Another Government MP said he had heard similar concerns.

"They know the voting will take place in the various constituencies, but that the ballots will not be counted in the constituencies,'' as they normally would be in a general election, Mr. Spurling said.

For the referendum, all the ballot boxes will be transported from the constituencies to Wesley Methodist Church Hall on Church Street in Hamilton before the ballots are counted.

"Normally, that box doesn't leave your eyes,'' Mr. Spurling said. Some constituents, "because of the fact there's a period of time when they're in transit, if you like,...they feel that anything could happen,'' he said of the ballot boxes.

"I'm quite sure the integrity of the ballot boxes will be maintained,'' Mr.

Spurling said. "What we have to do is make sure that the integrity is maintained.'' Parliamentary Registrar Mrs. Marlene Christopher said each ballot box would be sealed before a returning officer drove it from the polling place to Wesley Methodist.

Each returning officer was also a justice of the peace, she said. And a Police car would accompany each car containing a ballot box.

The same security was in place for the capital punishment referendum in 1990, Mrs. Christopher said.

Representatives of the political parties have been invited to observe the vote, and Mrs. Christopher said she was awaiting responses.

United Bermuda Party executive officer Mr. Oliver Bain said his party would send observers to the advance poll on August 8 and to both the polling stations and the central counting place on August 15.

Observers were not sent to the first advance poll on July 25, he said.

Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade has complained that the Progressive Labour Party received a letter only on Thursday inviting it to send observers to the July 25 advance poll. "That demonstrates the level of concern that the authorities have for seeing us participate,'' he said.

The PLP, which has called for a boycott of the referendum, would be making an announcement soon as to whether it would participate by observing the vote, Mr. Wade said.