Little more than half the country's eligible voters bothered to walk to the polling stations for yesterday's historic vote on Independence.

Last night, Mr. Frederick Wade claimed a victory for the PLP's abstention call and one Cabinet Minister conceded that Mr. Wade had "single-handedly'' influenced the vote.

Bermuda normally sees a 70 percent or more turnout for general elections - in 1993, 78 percent turned out for the elections - but yesterday 58.8 percent or 22,326 of the 37,841 people eligible to cast a vote did so.

Polling stations around the Island were quiet, although the turnout was above 70 percent in Sir John Swan's seat, a UBP stronghold.

Elsewhere, in St. George's North only 55 percent of the electorate bothered trekking to the polling station. Residents in the PLP seat appeared to be heeding the call to abstain.

No polling station reported any rushes and most said voting had just been steady. At Pembroke East only 100 people had turned up by 1 p.m. and only 100 walked into the polling station at Paget West by 1.20 p.m.

It was difficult to see whether the aftermath of Hurricane Felix affected voting or the PLP's call for abstention had worked effectively.

However, Transport Minister the Hon Maxwell Burgess had no doubt what caused the low turnout.

He said last night that opinion polls had suggested that as much as 72 percent of the electorate would go to the polls.

"To the extent that the final result is less than that, it is Mr. Wade's abstention programme that takes the credit,'' said Mr. Burgess.

"You could say that Mr. Wade single-handedly takes the credit for the difference and/or you can make the argument that it was a factor that people had only 14 hours notice because of the hurricane.'' Mr. Wade said: "I think our campaign paid off. If we have done well with the campaign, and I hope we have, it backs up what we said in the beginning, that the whole process the country has gone through was wrong.'' Last night, Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons said he was not totally surprised by the turnout, adding there was a big difference between a general election and a referendum.

He pointed out that in 1990 only 32.6 percent of the electorate turned out to vote on the hanging debate.

"In general elections, political parties actively make provision for taking people to the polls and tracking people down,'' said Mr. Simons.

He said a lot of countries would be pleased with a 55-percent turnout, which he said was good even by Bermuda standards.

"I would think the PLP campaign would have affected members of Parliament and hardcore supporters, but I don't think it had a tremendous impact.'' Yesterday morning, when questioned about the low turnout, the Hon. Quinton Edness said he would have preferred the referendum to be held next week.

"It would have given Government more of a chance to inform the public. I worry that some people didn't even know that the referendum was on Wednesday, but the law states it had to be held, so here we are.'' When the polls opened yesterday morning, 37,841 were eligible to vote. To give Government a mandate to negotiate Independence, a majority of voters had to say "yes''.

But in addition, 40 percent of all eligible voters, or 15,136, had to vote yes. Before yesterday, about 1,200 voted in two advance polls and at hospitals.