vote in next month's General Election -- after the Opposition PLP arranged a charter flight to bring the students back home.

But one Progressive Labour Party candidate insisted the flight waas not set up to boost the ranks of Opposition supporters but was arranged because "everyone has the right to vote''.

Smith's South candidate Lt. Col. David Burch, responsible for organising the flight, said that there was no guarantee that all those students coming home would support his party.

"We think everybody should be allowed to participate in this election,'' Lt.

Col. Burch said. "There's no way of knowing how they are going to vote. We have got a list of names and we are just giving the tickets out on a first come first serve basis.'' A charter flight carrying 173 students will leave Atlanta on November 8 -- the day before the election -- and return on November 11.

The price of a seat is $525, with cash coming in from parents and other individuals willing to sponsor a child.

"If we can get more money we would like to hire another aircraft,'' Lt. Col.

Burch said. "We have got more students than we have got seats and the challenge we've got at the moment is that we don't have as much money as we do passengers.

"For months now we've been getting e-mails and correspondence from parents saying that they want their children to come out.

"We've had donations from individuals across the board. Some people have donated the full $525, others might just have given $100. And it's not just parents who have donated, even people without children have been willing to contribute.'' "But if we can raise enough money to support a larger aircraft, the price of each seat will go down.'' Lt. Col. Burch said it was important to allow absent voters their say in the election.

"What we in the PLP would like to do is provide for absentee voters in a better way than we do now,'' he said.

"At the moment if you are going to be off Island on polling day you can participate in an advanced poll but if you're off the Island now and you're not going to be back until December then you're out of luck.

"For many students this will be their first election and it's important to get them to participate.'' A similar plan to bring in students from Canada has fallen through, said Lt.

Col. Burch.

AIRPORT PLANE FLY