The ruling Progressive Labour Party's refusal to release their Boundaries Commission submission to the public has `shocked and dismayed' the Opposition United Bermuda Party (UBP).

Acting leader David Dodwell accused the governing party of walking away from their responsibility and rejected the PLP's suggestion that releasing their submission publicly would usurp the electoral reform process.

Mr. Dodwell also repeated his party's call for the Boundaries Commission to allow for public discussion on its recommendations on the placement of the boundaries before sending the report to Whitehall.

He said his party had called for the Progressive Labour Party to release its position on the number of seats in a revamped single seat electoral system soon after Government announced its plans for electoral reform.

"We called for it from the beginning. The response was silence. But they never said they weren't going to do it," Mr. Dodwell said. He was responding to yesterday's report in which PLP spokesman Glenn Blakeney said the party would not be releasing its submission to the Boundaries Commission publicly.

"We strongly feel they are walking away from their responsibility and we are outraged at the silence. No one is dictating to them because it's all about transparency and accountability which were promised by this Government three years ago," Mr. Dodwell said.

"We also don't believe that you just leave it to the commission, that the public is entitled to hear the framework of the decision rather than just the decision and it's strange to us that some PLP supporters and people close to the PLP are prepared to make their positions public."

Mr. Blakeney had said that the Boundaries Commission should be left to do their work and the public should wait until the House of Assembly debate on its report to find out what the PLP's position is.

Releasing the party's position publicly would start a `debate outside the (House) debate', he said.

"We believe that it's nonsense that the PLP wants to make it look like only the Commission is involved," continued Mr. Dodwell. "In other words give up their responsibility and walk away and leave it to the Commission to do it. We think that's nonsense, because this is about all of us."

He pointed out that electoral reform was the PLP's initiative and that the public had been calling for an opportunity to provide meaningful input into the process.

"The PLP started this process in their manifesto. They wanted it so why not continue it and tell Bermuda what numbers they wanted, in other words what their contribution is to the Commission. We take very strong exception to the comment of not usurping the process. And in fact quite to the contrary by going public with the submission the party is participating in it. And we have an obligation to our supporters to tell them what our position is, because frankly they have been telling us they wanted to know what our position was. And from what we know the PLP supporters are doing the same and so they should be."

He said the situation brought to mind a UBP criticism of the PLP. "`You don't know, we don't know because they won't say'. We simply refuse to usurp the people's right to know. They accused us of starting the debate well the debate started three years ago."

And on Mr. Blakeney's statement that the PLP's statement was `abundantly clear', Mr. Dodwell said: "It's as clear as mud - they have not delivered on their promises of transparency and they haven't even delivered on the process. "They also accused of trying to cause a swing of sentiment. We're simply trying to give people information so they can form a sentiment."

And he argued again for more public discussion once the Boundaries Commission completes its recommendations but before they are debated in the House.

"We believe there should be a pause for discussion, especially since the PLP rejects the idea of a constitutional conference. This is brand new for us - it's a major change and its the first time we've done this. We think it's so new and because it's the first time we should pause. We think that people deserve the right to comment and it might change the commissioners' views."

"If they're going to come out with a number, what we're saying is show us those divisions and we would like for the people to comment on that. If you think about the discussion people haven't been focussed on the boundaries, mostly because they have been given so little information."