As the general election campaign stumbles to a close, the suspicion here is that the main emotion felt by most voters will be relief that is finally over, regardless of who wins. It has been one of the longest campaigns in living memory, and it has also been one of the nastiest and most personal.

Any hopes that the PLP in particular would fight this election on the issues have been extinguished. Instead the public has been treated to smear, character assassination and exaggeration and sensationalism, which have taken the concept of fair comment to its very limits.

It must be said that the UBP has done well to have taken the high road in these instances. Its official advertising and statements have been honourable. They were not helped by the doctored images circulated around the Island or by the anti-Independence campaign, but have condemned on the first and ignored the other.

By contrast the PLP has attempted to exploit the Larry Smith smear video, has used its own advertising to target Opposition Leader Michael Dunkley, disgusted many with its "puppet" ad and has twisted UBP statements and policy proposals until they are barely recognisable. The PLP has also abused its hold on a caretaker government to the point where few can tell the difference between party campaigning and Government announcements.

Now the PLP, in a series of desperate sounding and looking advertisements, is trying to claim the election of the UBP will lead to 8,000 non-Bermudians getting status. Is this possible? The UBP's platform gave in principle support to granting status to holders of permanent resident certificates subject to terms and conditions that would be outlined in a White Paper.

The UBP's rationale for this is that the PRC policy, which applies to people who have lived continuously in Bermuda for 20 years starting prior to 1989, has caused confusion in families, with different siblings having status, a PRC or nothing at all. There is some truth in this.

And this newspaper has long been concerned that the PRC policy and the six-year term limit policy will mean that expatriates coming to Bermuda will have no incentive to get to know or contribute to this community in a meaningful way.

Further, with the Bermudian birthrate falling, and an ageing population as well, the idea that no one apart from spouses of Bermudians should have status may well cause problems for the Island in the future. Having said that, the UBP erred in stating that it supported the general principle without having examined the problem in detail and would do well to drop it now. It is no surprise that the PLP has jumped on what may have been the only UBP mistake in the campaign.

But the PLP has taken a proposal and, again, turned it into something it is not. It is true that the 2000 Census shows that there were then around 4,000 non-Bermudians who did not have status and had come to the Island in 1990 or before. However, Government's White Paper on long term residents put the number of people likely to be eligible at 2,000, possibly because you have be 40 at the time of application to be eligible.

Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess used the 4,000 figure to claim that if all of those people were granted status, then a further 2,000 or 4,000 people could also claim status as children and spouses of the new status-holder. The PLP's advertising has now effectively made that 8,000 figure a fact. But it is not. On Friday, this newspaper tried to get the most recent numbers of PRC holders and will continue to do so today. But by 2004, 869 PRCs had been granted from an estimated 1,100 eligible applicants. It is hard to imagine that there will be additional 3,000 people eligible to apply by 2009, which is the 20-year cut off date.

One would have thought that Mr. Burgess should have those numbers and should not have to rely on a seven-year-old census for his estimates.

Mr. Burgess has also attempted to tie the issue to land ownership, claiming that this move would enable status Bermudians to buy up the Island. Mr. Burgess said on Friday that non-Bermudians now own 32 percent or 1,920 of the 6,000 acres that are zoned as residential land on the Island, and now, apparently, they could buy the rest.

Leaving aside why Government insists on measuring property ownership through land as opposed to residences; Mr. Burgess' statement that people who now hold PRCs could now buy all the rest of Bermuda's land ignores the fact they can already buy condominiums and a limited number of houses. But no one should be surprised. Selective use of words and statements combined with exaggeration has been the PLP's modus operandi in this campaign. Why should it change now?