Bermuda's electoral system could be changed from the current 20 dual seat constituencies to 36 single seats as recommended by the Boundaries Commission by the end of the year.

Unless, that is, proponents of a constitutional conference succeed in their lobbying efforts with the Foreign Secretary.

The Commission's Report, endorsed unanimously by the six Commissioners, was approved by the House of Assembly Friday.

And the next step is to be decided by the British government before making an order in council changing the Constitution to reflect the changes.

Such orders are made, on the recommendation of the Secretary of State, by the Privy Council of the United Kingdom which meets about ten times a year.

The Council's next meeting is on Tuesday and the next two after that are scheduled for November 20 and December 17.

It is now felt unlikely that the British government will hold a constitutional conference, before making the order, given that the report was unanimously approved by the Island's legislators.

But yesterday Warren Cabral, secretary of lobby group the Association for Due Process and the Constitution, said he believed that the Foreign Secretary wanted to do "the right thing".

"We believe the Foreign Secretary is quite sensitive and very alive to do the right thing," he said.

"It's uncivilised to allow a small majority to change the Constitution.

"Everybody knows it was in the (PLP) manifesto in a vague sort of way but now that it has been boiled down to specifics it has to be assented to specifically by the electorate."

He said Friday's debate had put to rest some of their concerns but the Association will now work with the Foreign Office to "find a formula indicating public assent, bearing in mind the Assembly is only two thirds of the equation and bearing in mind the Association is a very large organisation and judging by the three opinion polls in which 75 percent supported the call for a conference".

Mr. Cabral, who lives in England and has been closely following developments here, said he was pleased with the quality of the debate but added comments that the public does not have the wherewithal to give input into the actual positioning of the boundaries were way off base because the Association had all the tools necessary, except a database controlled by the Works and Engineering Department.

The Association considers itself an "agent of the public", he said.

He also objected to Dame Lois Brown Evans argument that the public's input was through their Parliamentarians who are representatives of the people.

The public, he said, was given specific rights to participate directly in the process by the order which allowed the Boundaries Commission to come up with its report.

An Opposition motion to ask the UK to hold a conference to deal with residual issues was also handily defeated at the end of the ten hour debate.

And former Opposition leader Pamela Gordon said during the debate that she could no longer support the call for a conference and a referendum to ratify the changes.

Ms Gordon said the call did not make any sense since the British had given no indication of where it stood in terms of whether Bermuda could change its Constitution internally.

She added that the fear and anxiety that had greeted the start of the reform process had been replaced by a "level of comfort" since the report was completed.

Yesterday UBP leader Grant Gibbons said that the party's position had not changed but it will wait for the UK to digest the debate and indicate what the next steps are going to be.

"I think whether it's Pam Gordon or the rest of us... all of us agree that the British Government has been making it up as we go along."

The Privy Council meets on average once a month.

Britain will consider the report, Friday's debate and public reaction before making a decision. Deputy Governor Tim Gurney told The Royal Gazette that he expected the transcript of the debate to be sent to Whitehall by the end of the week.