as late as May 24.

If no election is called, Bermuda's Constitution says the Legislature is dissolved five years from the date of its first sitting after a general election.

An election must be held no more than three months after the Legislature is dissolved, the Constitution says.

The House of Assembly reconvened on February 24, 1989 after a February 9 vote.

That means the Legislature would dissolve on February 24, 1994.

A three-month campaign would make May 24 the latest election date possible.

Under the Parliamentary Election Act 1978, it would be technically possible for Bermudians to go to the polls only 17 days after an election was called.

But requirements for notification make an 18-day campaign the shortest ever likely to be fought.

If Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan called an election today, it could be held no sooner than September 18.

In his three previous election calls, Sir John has favoured a three-week campaign. The Premier took Bermudians to the polls on Thursdays in February in 1983 and 1989, and on an October Tuesday in 1985.

Since party politics were introduced in 1968, the longest election campaign was in 1980, when the Hon. Sir David Gibbons gave five weeks notice of the December 9 vote. The UBP's four-seat majority was its closest-ever brush with defeat, and three-week campaigns have been the rule ever since.

Bermuda's first two votes, in 1968 and 1972, were held on Wednesdays. Since then, voting day has always been a Tuesday or Thursday. A Government Minister said tradition was behind the preference for those weekdays, and there was no reason why another day could not be chosen.