supporters to boycott this summer's Independence referendum.
"Our aim is to kill the referendum,'' Mr. Wade said at a news conference.
Instead, Bermudians "deserve an election where Independence is the only issue.'' But lawyer and 1993 PLP candidate Mr. Philip Perinchief described the boycott call as "a political error'' that would cause discord and confusion.
"Why take the gradualist approach to Independence, when in fact you've been calling for Independence all along?'' Mr. Perinchief asked. "What does it matter what vehicle you use, as long as you get there?'' Mr. Walton Brown, chairman of the Committee for the Independence of Bermuda, said he was disappointed the Country's political leaders could not find "common ground'' on Independence. "We have little hope now that the referendum will be successful,'' Mr. Brown said.
And Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan, who also favours Independence, said Mr.
Wade's boycott call was "most unfortunate.'' "He sets out, because he can't have his own way, to spoil the process,'' Sir John said of Mr. Wade.
Mr. Wade said the PLP favoured Independence as "the final step in Bermuda's road to democracy.'' But Bermudians had to decide not just whether the Island went Independent, but "the nature and quality of the Independence we get,'' he said.
The referendum proposed by the United Bermuda Party Government -- which was approved by the House of Assembly last month and the Senate on Wednesday -- "fails to give the Bermudian people an opportunity to examine the style of Independence or to examine the UBP's proposals for an Independent Bermuda,'' Mr. Wade said.
"We cannot in good conscience urge the people of Bermuda to `buy a pig in a poke' with a blank cheque.'' The PLP won 46 percent of the votes in the 1993 general election. As well as a majority of votes cast, 40 percent of all eligible voters must vote "yes'' to give Government a mandate for Independence. Therefore, a successful boycott would doom any chance of a yes vote, which many saw as slim already.
Mr. Wade expected some PLP supporters wanted Independence "under any conditions'' and "may well decide to ignore'' the boycott.
"We hope these members will be able to move from an emotional response to Independence to one of logic, politics, and economics, and the reality of the situation.'' If the referendum this summer resulted in a no vote, the PLP would not raise Independence as a major plank in the next general election, Mr. Wade said. If the PLP won the election, it would spend the first year educating the public about Independence, then call an election "with the only issue as Independence for Bermuda''.
How it would be possible to hold a general election on a single issue was not clear.
If the UBP took Bermuda to Independence, it would entrench a "corrupt'' electoral system, with imbalanced voting constituencies, he said.
The PLP would wage an election-style campaign -- complete with public meetings and advertising -- to urge voters to stay home, he said.
The campaign would kick off at the Leopards Club on April 18.
Mr. Wade conceded it would be impossible to tell from the result whether those who abstained were heeding the PLP call or had stayed away for other reasons.
"The results are the same whether they abstain because they wish to abstain or they abstain because they're not interested,'' he said. "If they abstain because they're not interested, that's also a very serious indictment against the whole process.'' At a meeting of top party officials last Monday where there was "very lively debate,'' other options were discussed and rejected, Mr. Wade said.
"We are for Independence, and we don't want our supporters to go into a ballot box and lie about it,'' Mr. Wade said. "If they go in there and vote no, or they spoil a ballot, they are participating in the process and they are telling a lie.'' The PLP would tell its supporters: "The referendum has nothing to do with you,'' Mr. Wade said. "Stay away from it. Don't even be concerned about it.
"It doesn't improve your lot. It's designed to further imprison you, to further enslave you, and to further entrench the John Swan style of Government.'' Mr. Perinchief said he did not see a "yes'' vote in the referendum as a vote in favour of Sir John's administration. "I see it as a vote for self-respect and self-determination.'' The PLP was "sending mixed signals'' and would confuse and frustrate its supporters, he said.
Through "political brokerage'' with the Premier, the PLP could have supported the referendum on condition of electoral reforms, while dividing the UBP and forcing the election the Opposition wanted.
Mr. Brown said the Committee for the Independence of Bermuda was to meet last night to assess its position.
Without a boycott, "any vote on Independence would be a close vote'', he said. The PLP will "probably get at least half of their members to abstain'' he predicted. Under the terms of the referendum, even a ten percent boycott by PLP supporters "would kill it''.
On "the one issue fundamental to Bermuda,'' the two parties should have been able to find common ground, he said.
Sir John said Mr. Wade did his supporters "a disservice''. It would take "at least ten years'' for Independence to be decided through a general election, he said.
