Former United Bermuda Party (UBP) Cabinet Minister Quinton Edness has added his voice in support of voter re-registration.

"It should have been part and parcel of the whole programme to change the boundaries," said Mr. Edness on Monday.

He expressed surprise that the Governor has not discharged what he says is one of his major responsibilities.

"I was amazed that they could come out and say there's no need for a re-registration."

The UBP has been insisting for months that a wholesale re-registration of voters is necessary before the next election because of recent reforms of the system.

Conducting the next election without a re-registration would only ensure "mass confusion", Mr. Edness added.

"It is incomprehensible to think that Bermuda can have a complete redrawing of all the constituency boundaries urged by the Bermuda Government and approved by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and both the governor's office and the government declare that it is not necessary to have re-registration of the electorate."

Parliamentary Registrar Sabrina Phillips has responded to Opposition concerns by saying that the voters' list is not as inaccurate as suggested and that all effort will be made to educate people about the new system.

Mr. Edness denied a suggestion that he was promoting the UBP or any other's party's propaganda, but said he was speaking out as a concerned citizen of the country.

"I just feel that there's a lot of confusion taking place with people not knowing where they are registered with an election which is imminent," Mr. Edness said.

He stressed that he was speaking only on his own behalf.

"This sham would not happen anywhere else in a democratic country. It certainly would not happen in England to have left the poor parliamentary registrar struggling to clean up a bad policy decision."

He said such dramatic changes would always be accompanied by a re-registration in England.

"The last time I looked Bermuda was still a democratic country. It follows then, that when a complete boundaries change occurs and across parish boundary lines in many cases, a complete re-registration of all voters should have also been planned to ensure everyone is properly registered and know exactly in which constituency they are required to vote. That I believe is the democratic way. So I think you can imagine how appalled most people were when the governor's office, the office we all look to to ensure things are being done in a democratic way announces there is no need to have a comprehensive registration of voters," he continued.

"The result of course is mass confusion with many people not knowing where they should vote or in which constituency they should be registered. What a terrible way to enter into an election of such tremendous importance to the country where we will be voting for the first time with one man, one vote of equal value."

A re-registration campaign would "cause people to actually go an look at where they are registered and whether or not they are in the district they ought to be in".

Last month opposition MP Michael Dunkley sent to the Parliamentary Registrar lists of people he claimed were incorrectly registered after moving in or out of Devonshire East. The list purported to show a discrepancy of at least 15 percent.

But the registry office responded by saying that many of the people on the list were not eligible voters and 70 others could not be verified due to insufficient information.

A recent survey by pollster Walton Brown found that only 42 percent of registered voters know what constituency they are in, 36.5 percent don't know and 21.4 percent are not sure.