Parliamentary Registrar Sabrina Phillips is to retire in May but said she had absolutely loved her three years in the post which saw Bermuda move to single seat constituencies.

Ms Phillips, who is in her early 40s, said she intends to travel and then maybe work in charities after a career in both Government and the private sector.

She told her decision to retire was a personal choice.

?It was always my intention for years to do that. Now I am in a position to do so.

?It?s a good time to retire so somebody else can come in and get ready for the next election.

?I enjoyed it tremendously, it was a fantastic opportunity ? something I always wanted to do,? said Ms Phillips who said she had always been interested in politics.

However she stressed we will not be seeing her on the campaign trail. ?Absolutely not, I have no interest in politics on the other side.?

During her time in the post she was dragged into a political row when Opposition MP Trevor Moniz accused her of being ?handpicked? for the job by former Premier Jennifer Smith.

Mr. Moniz later apologised to Mrs. Phillips,a daughter of former Progressive Labour Party (PLP) MP Eugene Blakeney.

She said yesterday that she had expected to face such accusations at some stage as the post attracted such scrutiny.

?I was surprised it took as long as it did. It comes with the territory. And it is right to have scrutiny to make sure the person is unbiased.

?I didn?t have a problem with that although I don?t know Jennifer Smith from Adam and she certainly doesn?t know me from Adam and that proved itself to be the case.?

She said her successor in the post, which carries a salary of up to to $101,651, will face the same although she said most people had some affiliation in their family somewhere along the line.

Mrs. Phillips presided over the 2003 election which saw a new system of 36 single seats replace 20 dual seats. Nearly 36,000 people voted while 450 returning officers and 110 presiding officers were called into action.

However Mrs. Phillips said she had been confident the election would go without a hitch after the hard work put in during the lead up.

And she said the close election, which saw two Government seats retained by just eight votes, was nothing new to Bermuda.

?That was the case historically. We have seen constituencies in the 1970s and 1980s decided by five or seven votes.?

Recently Opposition leader Grant Gibbons said the Parliamentary Registrar ought to be given powers to intervene when people continued to vote in seats they had moved out of.

But Mrs. Phillips said the polling list was in fantastic shape and it should always be up to individuals to change their seat once they had moved rather than others do it for them.

She said: ?Otherwise you could get people change registrations they are not supposed to change because they are angry at a wife, tenant or boyfriend.?