Corin Smith, the Opposition candidate for today's Sandys North by-election was yesterday accused of plagiarism and "misrepresenting the facts" by the Progressive Labour Party.

Mr. Smith denies the charge. He simply shared many aspects of the vision for development of the West End originally dreamt up by Wedco under a United Bermuda Party Government, he said.

"They haven't done anything that's worth plagiarising," quipped Mr. Smith.

A campaign document, 'Corin Smith's Agenda for Sandys North', which was circulated to households in the district lifted chunks of text from the West End Development Corporation's (Wedco) published programme for Dockyard, according to the ruling party and Wedco chairman Walter Lister.

"It appears to be something that was plagiarising some our documents," said Mr. Lister yesterday.

"I think politicians shouldn't stoop to those practices. I think we need to keep things on the high road." He said that Mr. Smith had asked for a meeting with the quango at the early stages of the election campaign.

"It was quite a session but when I saw that document that was posted out I was extremely suspicious and it appears, quite frankly, that it's a lot of plagiarising going on and we don't really need that.

"Because all he said was what we had down and is part of our programme which we are going forward with."

He couldn't say exactly how much of the document was plagiarised because he had not read it in detail.

"We are working on a '20/20' plan ? that's the development of the Dockyard for the next 20 years and there are other documents which are supporting documents. So it just looks very suspicious to me. I don't think it's a big political issue but it just looks suspicious to me."

PLP spokesperson Scott Simmons would not go as far as accusing Mr. Smith of plagiarism and admitted he had not yet found and checked the document against Wedco's version.

"I think plagiarism is a strong word," he said. "I believe we have a responsibility now to identify whether or not there is an element of plagiarism..."

He added that the PLP had produced its own document on a vision for Dockyard.

"When you produce a document that clearly states your position and if that document reflects almost word for word other documents that exist, then the element of plagiarism will come up."

The PLP is also concerned that Mr. Smith is taking credit for the quango's decision to defer a planned rental increase to its residential tenants.

"The party is absolutely concerned," said PLP spokesperson Scott Simmons. "The candidate is misrepresenting the facts."

Mr. Simmons said that residents' concerns about the rental increases were brought to the attention of his party's candidate Michael Scott, who took action to deal with the matter with the Housing Minister and with Wedco.

"It was able to be dealt with immediately, the seriousness of it was identified and obviously the matter was resolved to the benefit of the constituents."

And rounding off their criticism of the Opposition candidate is the fact that his campaign literature and political advertising does not appear to be endorsed by the United Bermuda Party.

"Maybe as a new politician he's giving himself a lot more credit than he deserves," Housing Minister Ashfield DeVent said.

"I had canvassed the area with the PLP candidate two weekends ago and I had spoken to quite a number of people and as soon as this proposed increase was on the table, Minister Scott approached me and I was fully aware of some of the issues in the area, between myself and the Premier, and we decided to approach Wedco with the view of them reconsidering any increase before some of those issues were dealt with."

For his part, Michael Scott, Mr. Smith's opponent in today's poll, would not comment on the plagiarism charge.

But he said that Mr. Smith could not take credit for Wedco's climbdown.

"That claim is a remarkable one really when one stops to consider that he had absolutely no direct involvement in the short course of events that led to the reversal of the landlord's position to increase rents and maintenance fees.

"It was the intervention of the Premier at my urging and having received information from myself that the chairman took the very clear position that we were advocating that there be no increases until after tenants' repair had been addressed."

Residents had been concerned that Wedco had not completed repairs to their homes made necessary as a result of Hurricane Fabian.

This week the quango issued a press statement saying that the proposed increases had been deferred until a review of the outstanding work is completed.