Massive disparity in the size of electoral constituencies will be a thing of the past if the changes being proposed by the Commission become law.

And hundreds of voters will have to get used to the idea of going to the same polling stations as voters in a neighbouring parish.

Some voters in Hamilton Parish, for example, will be in the same constituency as some St. George's voters.

The Commission is recommending 36 single seat constituencies ranging in size from 1,148 (“Smith's North”) to 1,031 voters in the newly configured “Warwick South Central”.

Under the current dual seat system the range is 2,720 (Warwick East) voters to 1,360 (Paget East).

The proposed new electoral map, which was generated primarily by the use of sophisticated computer software, may also have some parliamentarians looking for a home.

Some voters in the ruling party stronghold currently known as Sandys South will be voting in the newly configured “Southampton West” which arguably could dilute the strength of the Opposition party in that area.

And Paget will end up with two representatives, instead of the current four, while Hamilton Parish gets three single seat constituencies.

However Warwick, which is being allocated five single seat constituencies, gets an extra representative. The Commission had to disregard parish boundaries in a number of cases in order to come up with contiguous (not broken up) equal sized constituencies, resulting in a third of the newly configured constituencies crossing parish boundaries.

“Smith's North” stands out as encompassing three parish boundaries - Devonshire, Smith's and Hamilton - and runs from Barkers Hill, Devonshire all the way to Flatts Bridge.

Smith's South, one of its neighbouring constituencies, is wholly contained within Smith's Parish. But further east is “Hamilton South” which also cuts across three parish boundaries taking in the rest of Smith's, a chunk of Hamilton Parish and a sliver of St. George's.

And there will be four constituencies with Devonshire in its name - “Devonshire East” runs into Smith's and borders “Devonshire South Central”, which takes in parts of Paget and has “Devonshire North Central” and “Devonshire North West as its northern neighbours.

Pembroke, which now has four dual seat constituencies, will have seven single seat constituencies but one of them “Pembroke East”, covers more of Devonshire than it does Pembroke.

But St. David's Islanders might be pleased to learn that they are a constituency all to themselves. Three other constituencies will make up the easternmost end of the Island - St. George's North, West and South.

The report also reveals that a majority of the Commissioners agreed that the House Speaker should be independently appointed from outside the House. Under current law the Speaker is an elected Member of the House chosen by the other parliamentarians and only votes when the House is equally divided.

“This means that (the Speaker) does not have the same opportunity as his fellow MPs to represent his constituents by speaking on their behalf in the House,” the report states.

But this proposal of an independent Speaker did not fall under the Commission's mandate, the report points out and could not be specifically recommended. The Commission based its deliberations on an estimated voter population of 39,198 by May this year.

And it allowed for a five percent variation in constituency size from the ideal figure of 1,089.

That means that all the constituency sizes should have fallen within the range of 1,035 and 1143 voters.

Smith's North, the largest with an estimated 1,148 people eligible to be registered to vote, is one of just four constituencies that exceed the top limit. And only one constituency, Warwick South Central with 1,031 voters, falls below the lower limit.