The public will have to wait until the House of Assembly debate on the Boundaries Commission electoral reform report to find out how many constituencies the PLP wants in a new single seat electoral system.

The party has refused to reveal its submissions to the Commission even though the Opposition UBP and campaigners Association for Due Process have released theirs to the public.

"The Progressive Labour Party will not be dictated to by the action of others as to what they feel they should do," said party spokesman Glenn Blakeney.

Dozens of individuals have also made their positions clear at open public meetings with the members of the Boundaries Commission.

Mr. Blakeney told The Royal Gazette yesterday that his party will not be releasing its submission to the public because it would `usurp the process' of electoral reform and start a `debate before the debate'.

"I don't see where there should be a pre-empting of the process, especially where there is going to be a full debate in the House of Assembly," Mr. Blakeney said. "This is a very serious issue and I don't think it makes sense to have a debate outside the debate. It's going through the process and I would say let the Boundaries Commission do their work - that is with all the objectivity that one would expect and with all sides being taken into consideration."

He added: "What difference would it be to know now as opposed to during the debate? If now you say a number everybody is going to want an explanation as to why that number and not another number, and you'll have a debate before the debate."

Told that the public may be anxious to know how many seats the governing party was proposing, Mr. Blakeney said it was already `abundantly clear' what the Government wants.

"The Government wants single seat constituencies based on the one man, one vote principle. At the end of the day the Boundaries Commission will make their recommendations which will be debated in the House and sent on to Whitehall. At the end of the day it will all come out in the wash... Let the process unfold."

The Boundaries Commission was empowered by an Order in Council last summer to come up with recommendations on the number, boundaries of, constituencies in a revamped single seat electoral system.

Its recommendations will be debated in the House of Assembly and sent, along with a report of the House debate, to Whitehall before a second Order is made to change the system. The British Government has said a constitutional conference in the interim stage is neither ruled in nor ruled out.

"We have very astute, I would like to think, Opposition politicians represented on the Boundaries Commission," Mr. Blakeney continued.

"We have very experienced representation on the Governing party and we have extremely experienced appointments in the like of the chairman and legal expertise."

Asked to comment on the fact that both the UBP and the Association for Due Process had released their submissions to the public, he said: "It appears as if they have exhausted all of the options and now they want to go to the public to try to cause a swing of sentiment."

The Association has opposed the process of changing the constitution, saying it should not be done without a constitutional conference.

The UBP, in their submission released this week, also raised concerns about the process and said a conference will be necessary to address issues flowing from reducing the number of MPs.

It also called for a referendum to allow the public to approve the number recommended.

Mr. Blakeney said the Association had only succeeded in confusing the public when it sponsored a lecture on alternative electoral systems by politics professor David Farrell.

"I was thoroughly confused with the models (of proportional representation)" he added. "So our position is to let the process go forward - I have full confidence in the Boundaries Commission."

He said electoral reform was a longstanding promise of the PLP to address gerrymandering of electoral boundaries and to make each vote of equal value.

"As they have in most of their platform promises, they have delivered...I don't see the point with going over the same case scenarios when definitely the Progressive Labour Party and the Government have categorically and very clearly stated their position and they are doing this as a matter of principle.

"The biggest advantage would be to the individual who, through the democratic process, will have the right to exercise their vote being equal in value to every other voter in a political election in this country. That's the process that everyone should be concerned with, because at the end of the day it makes sense if it's right and it has been objectively obtained through consultation and experienced legal representation across the political spectrum then what is the big problem?"