Hard on the heels of former Premier Pamela Gordon's reversal of opinion on her party's call for a constitutional conference, Premier Jennifer Smith rounded off the debate on the Boundaries Commission Report by answering every point raised by the United Bermuda Party (UBP).

There was no need for an independent Speaker because the nature of party politics meant that the constituents of an elected Speaker under a single seat system would be taken care of, and would not lose representation in the House, she said.

"I would venture to guess that the constituents would be in a particularly good place because no one would want to anger the Speaker by not taking care of those constituents."

She added that the role of future Boundaries Commissions was already provided for in the Constitution and that Ms Gordon had already addressed the point that there was a need for a clause specifying how the Constitution could be changed in the future.

Re-registration of voters was a "non starter", she said. "Through cooperation, I believe the Parliamentary Registrar and the Department of Statistics have achieved an unprecedented list of eligible voters in Bermuda. There is, in this technological age, no need for re-registration annually because voters are no longer disenfranchised annually. They remain on the list."

She noted that there had been constituency changes in two districts (Hamilton East and Pembroke West) before the last election. "Members had by-elections there in the lead up to the general election and had to vote somewhere differently in the general election."

She said it was now easier, with online registration and computerisation, for the Parliamentary Registrar to deal with population movements and redistricting.

Ms Smith denounced the idea of a referendum, with a simple 'yes' or 'no' question, as an inadequate way of assessing feedback from the public.

And she informed the House that the 985 missing addresses could only be sorted out because the Statistics Act, passed earlier this year, allowed Government Departments to share data.

On Opposition MP John Barritt's concerns that two percent of voters were not account for, she said that a 98 percent success rate was better than many countries.

"It would be neither practical nor reasonable nor even plausible to go through an exercise for two percent. I have been given to understand that our 98 percent success figure is exceptional in the world. While we may be small we do know that Bermuda has its share of people with no fixed abode. Bermuda has its share of people who sleep wherever they may find themselves... In fact in this imperfect world I know of nothing that has been a hundred percent."

She ended by referring again to Ms Gordon's contribution, saying that it satisfied her that Dr. Gibbons' motion had no validity.