Lobby group the Association for Due Process and the Constitution says its campaign for a constitutional conference before electoral reform has been further validated by the "obvious deficiencies" of the recently released Boundaries Commission report.

In a press statement released yesterday, the Association says that it viewed the report as "flawed, misleading and incomplete".

Of particular concern, it says, is the fact that the computer generated boundaries were manually adjusted left the process open to "political interference and corrupt practice".

John Barritt, a United Bermuda Party representative on the commission, has already gone on the record to say that there was no opportunity for political manipulation of the boundaries.

The lobby group continues to argue that the commission's remit was too limited to allow proper consideration of the range of electoral systems which would allow the achievement of voter parity. In the past the Association has urged consideration of a proportional representation electoral system in which each party's would get a number of seats corresponding to its share of the vote but the commission held that it was not free to consider any other system but the Westminster first past the post system.

"Accordingly the work of the commission is at odds with the political justification for the turmoil to which the Island has been subjected," the Association said.

"Further, the Commission admits that limitations on its remit prevented it from considering important issues such as an independent Speaker."

And, says the Association, the public was denied its right to fully participate in the process as required by law.

"The public was clearly misled by proceedings in January 2002. The Report of the Commission admits this, as it discloses that data prepared for the commission was only made available in May whereas the public meetings were held in January," the statement adds.

"As the minority submission by John Barritt makes clear, the public were unable to make representations on fundamental matters before the commission due to lack of data."

Finally, continued the statement, " the report is incomplete in that it fails to consider the future at all. In consequence of the methodology adopted by the commission, every future Boundaries Commission will be obliged to completely redraw the boundaries each and every time. This will result in massive disruption. This disruption will be exacerbated by the failure of the commission to recommend re-registration of voters."

In August the Boundaries Commission submitted its report recommending that the Island be divided into 36 electoral districts each to return one member to parliament.

Parliament is set to debate it on October 11 after which the British Government will make a decision on the next steps before changing the Constitution to enforce a single seat electoral system.