On the eve of the final Boundaries Commission public meeting tomorrow, an Opposition Senator has fired off strident criticism over the manner in which the meetings have been handled to date.

The final public meeting will take place tomorrow at St. James Church Hall in Somerset at 7.30 p.m.

The public meetings were intended to elicit feedback from citizens on how many single seat constituencies there should be when Bermuda goes into the next general election.

Three meetings have already been held in St. George's, St. David's and Hamilton and tomorrow evening may be the final occasion the average citizen has to voice an opinion about the shape of the next House of Assembly.

But UBP Senator Kim Swan has said, based on the way the meetings have been handled thus far, they are ineffective and the public desperately needs more information.

Sen. Swan said he attended the two public meetings held in the East End last week and felt people did not have sufficient information on hand to ask the questions and make the comments the Boundaries Commissioners are seeking to hear.

In particular, Commissioner chairman Frank Blackman told attendees last week, the Commission would like to hear suggestions on number of constituencies the public would like to see when Bermuda next goes to the polls which are focussed on specific numbers (not less than 20 and not more than 40) and arguments for or against those numbers.

But many who attended last week's meetings said they did not have any information on why the current number of Members of Parliament - 40 - should change at all.

Senator Swan suggested the Commission pass out the information it has in its possession at the beginning of the meeting rather than the conclusion as one mechanism to stimulate debate among the audience.

"At times there were long vacuums of silence," said Sen. Swan of last Wednesday's meeting which was held in St. George's.

"The Commission has some of the information people are looking for but it is not distributed till the end of the meeting," Sen. Swan said.

Copies of the 'Provisional 2000 Census Data', 'Boundaries Commission Information Sheets' and 'Numbers of Persons Registered to Vote per Constituency (as of January 18, 2002)' were passed out at the close of the meetings last week.

"What little information is available, the people at the meeting don't even have in their hands," Mr. Swan added.

Sen. Swan also criticised the Government for not making the mystery-shrouded Civil Service Review public to date.

"The things the Commission is asking the public to comment on are contingent on other things in that review," he said.

"Once there is a hypothetical number of constituencies, further discussion will take place from that point such as what the size of Cabinet should be."

Sen. Swan said much of this discussion is contained in the Civil Service Review and while Government refers to it, the public and the Legislature have yet to consider it.

One issue the public might like input on would be the arguments for and against moving to full-time MPs, he suggested.

However, Sen. Swan is calling on Government to make other information public as well such as the transcripts from a three-day Commonwealth Parliamentary Association post-election seminar which was held on the Island in October, 1999.

Sen. Swan said he has looked for the transcripts of the conference - which was recorded - which included the Speaker of the House of Assembly in St. Lucia, Matthew Roberts, and a Member of Parliament from Zimbabwe as participants.

Sen. Swan claims the two overseas participants made comments at the seminar which are highly relevant to the current Constitutional discussions in Bermuda but that the transcripts seem to have disappeared.

And he told The Royal Gazette he is not simply raising these issues in the spirit of partisan squabbling.

"This goes beyond party," Sen. Swan said. "We are talking about the future of our Country and it is very important."

He is also concerned that by the time the public digests the information on the decisions being made about the shape of the next Parliament, the opportunity for public input will have passed.

"The information needs to get out sooner rather than later," Sen. Swan said. "The people need to be the ones that sign off on this process."