Abandoning the dual seat electoral system in favour of single seats would be a "tremendous accomplishment" that puts Bermuda into "the age of democracy", according to political scientist Walton Brown.

But the size of Parliament, as recommended by the Boundaries Commission, is still too large and the body should have been allowed to consider reducing the size of Cabinet, he said.

Mr. Brown argued that the difference between 40 and 36 Members of Parliament was like "tweedledee and tweedledum" - very little.

And he criticised the report for not providing a rationale for choosing the number.

Contacted at his home in Barbados, Commission chairman Sir Frank Blackman was reluctant to comment outside of what is contained within the report.

Other members of the Commission, which disbanded when it handed the report to the Governor, have been equally reluctant to comment.

Yesterday UBP MP John Barritt said that he did not want to be accused of grandstanding by being the only one to speak out.

Sir Frank said, however, that the political members should be in a position to give any clarifications.

"I no longer have the right of speaking on behalf of the Commission since I am no longer chairman and it is no longer a commission and therefore the members are quite capable of explaining what the thought processes might have been."

Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans had "no comment" to make when the report was given out Friday.

Finance Minister Eugene Cox could not be reached for comment on Monday and the UBP's Pam Gordon, who also served on the Commission, is abroad.

The much anticipated report was tabled in the House of Assembly on Friday and printed in full in yesterday's Royal Gazette.

"My preference was for a more serious consideration of the number needed to provided for an adequate government," said Mr. Brown.

"Thirty six exceeds my ideal by six so in my view there was a prolonged discussion to achieve a relatively small reduction in the number. There was no explanation in the report for the number actually arrived at."

The report does say that the Commission relied on "logical and well reasoned arguments" in narrowing down its choices when deciding on a number of constituencies.

And it goes on to say that their thinking turned on what might be considered a "reasonable and manageable size of a constituency."

"Nowhere in the report is there a discussion of what they consider to be a reasonable and manageable number. Therefore there is no rationale of the number agreed upon," Mr. Brown said. "It seems that the number chosen was a median between the two positions and it has no inherent value in itself."

The United Bermuda Party (UBP) had recommended 39 elected Members of Parliament plus an independently appointed Speaker, while the ruling Progressive Labour Party (PLP) had suggested 32 MPs.

According to the report, those proposals plus the views of dozens of other submissions allowed the Commission to settle on a range of between 32 and 39 seats.

And it said the four politically appointed members of the Commission were prevailed upon to come to an agreement on one number.

Sir Frank denied the suggestion that the compromise number was arrived at because it was the median figure between 32 and 40 and presented to the politicians as a way out of the impasse.

"I don't think it was a way out of the impasse... It now happens to be in the middle."

It is known that the UBP had settled on 36 as the lowest number they would accept and that the PLP leadership was pressured by members of its parliamentary group to accept the compromise.

Sir Frank said the politicians were asked to consider what they thought would be a reasonable and manageable constituency size, taking into account canvassing and other responsibilities of election candidates.

"I think in fact we have done our bit and tried to be reasonable and we do recognise that the political members are on the spot in that they are representing their parties. But at the same time they had a broader duty which is a bit independent from the party. So we did acknowledge that they would probably find themselves in a spot... I do think they exercised that responsibility and with a common sense and responsible attitude. They should be in a position to explain what we tried to do as they see fit."

He added: "I would like to hear what the political members say of it. We looked at it and said what would you consider a reasonable size ? And we came up with a figure that allowed us to come up with 35 and 36 constituencies. It is their report it is not my report... we have tried to be logical and responsible."

Mr. Brown said there was a "negligible" difference between 1005 and 1225 voters per constituency - the range of ideal constituency size represented by the parties' proposals.

"I am disappointed by the lack of rationale," he said. "But there is also the issue that the mandate was so restricted that they were unable to look at the number in proper context. It only makes sense if you also look at the number of Cabinet Ministers."

The Commission report noted that a number of submissions expressed concerned that too low a number of MPs would mean that power would be concentrated in too few hands and reduce the effectiveness of the back-bench and the Opposition in making Government accountable.

But it pointed out that the Constitution already allows the Premier to appoint as few as six Ministers and that nothing prevented them from being paid on a full time basis.