Premier Paula Cox hinted an election was not on the cards as MPs approved the Constituency Boundaries Commission report.

The new Boundaries Commission map — which would give a number of MPs an uphill battle retaining their seats — was outlined by Premier Cox in the House of Assembly yesterday.

She said a bi-partisian committee decided to make changes to ensure each constituency had a similar number of eligible voters. The report was tabled in May but not debated during the summer parliamentary session.

This prompted some United Bermuda Party members to speculate the delay was intentional, so Government could utilise the boundaries in place when they won the 2007 General Election. Yesterday, Ms Cox referred to the speculation about an election last summer and said: "We did not deal with this before summer break because there was no immediate need to and some would say there was no immediate need to now."

The Premier also said amendments to the Parliamentary Election Act could be brought forward in the future.

The changes approved last night have altered several boundaries and will affect 14 percent of the voting population, or 6,594 voters.

Political commentators have previously told The Royal Gazette they believe the new boundaries could impact several MPs including Patrice Minors of Smith's North, Zane DeSilva of Southampton East Central and Donte Hunt of St. George's South.

Last night Premier Cox said: "The 2009/2010 Commission convened on Thursday, 4th June 2009 and after utilising all the information obtained, the Commission took note that an examination of the variation in the number of qualified electors in certain areas of Bermuda demonstrated that some constituencies had changed such that they were as much as 19 percent over and in some cases more than ten percent under the mean.

"Having noted the significant variations, the Commission resolved, pursuant to section 54.1b of the Constitution, that changes to the boundaries were required."

The new boundaries will not be in place until the next general election and have no impact on bi-elections before then. The Governor will order the changes to be gazetted when Parliament is dissolved before the next general election.