for the United Bermuda Party's Paget East primary ended as soon as it began.

Critics said the dates of the Paget East by-election and UBP primary were orchestrated to favour the Hon. Grant Gibbons -- seen as Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan's anointed choice to succeed his longtime running mate, late MP the Hon. John Stubbs.

On Tuesday night, Paget East UBP chairman Mr. Campbell McBeath announced the party's primary for the July 14 by-election would be held on June 28. He further announced that those who wanted to vote in the primary had only four hours to sign up -- until midnight that night.

By the time Paget East residents read the news in The Royal Gazette on Wednesday morning, the deadline had passed.

"It smells like dirty politics,'' said UBP backbencher Mr. Trevor Moniz, who supports Dr. Edward Harris, the other candidate in the UBP race. "To put it quite plainly, it's a travesty of the democratic process for the Premier to have forced such an early cut-off date.'' The Premier did not return telephone calls yesterday. But Mr. Moniz, who crossed swords with Sen. Gibbons in a Smith's South primary in 1992, was not the only one complaining.

Mr. Stewart Greenslade, who moved to Paget East from Warwick six months ago, said he felt "shafted'' by the turn of events.

"The Premier has made sure that only certain people can vote, and that's the bottom line,'' he said. "What are they afraid of? What's wrong with a fair fight?'' While Paget East was normally a walkover for the UBP, Mr. Greenslade predicted unhappiness over the primary would be reflected in the by-election. Dr. Stubbs died on June 7, meaning the by-election could have been held as late as August 8.

The July 14 by-election date chosen by the Premier and set by the Governor meant a June 30 Nomination Day. That resulted in a June 28 date for the UBP primary. A rule requiring those who vote in a primary to be UBP members for 14 days led to Tuesday night's cut-off for signing up.

Dr. Stubbs was only buried on Sunday, and Mr. Moniz said potential candidates held off from seeking support before then out of respect for the veteran MP and his family.

A later by-election date would have allowed more time for potential UBP candidates to sign up supporters so they could vote.

Despite the short time, the number of elible UBP voters increased from 57 when Dr. Stubbs died to 355 at midnight on Tuesday, Mr. McBeath said yesterday.

"There are a lot more than I figured.'' In a letter to UBP chairman Sen. Gary Pitman and the Premier, Dr. Harris asked "whether Sen. Gibbons, the campaign chairman of the party, was consulted about the date of either or both the primary or the by-election''.

"According to the party Constitution and the responsibilities of the campaign chairman it would seem that he would have played a major role in those decisions.'' Dr. Harris also complained that Sen. Gibbons, who was named to the Paget East UBP committee last year, attended the meeting at which the primary date was decided, although Dr. Harris was told he could not attend.

Mr. McBeath said Sen. Gibbons only attended the early part of the Paget East meeting, at which members paid tribute to Dr. Stubbs. When the committee turned to the business of the primary, "I asked Grant to excuse himself,'' Mr. McBeath said.

Sen. Gibbons said he had resigned from the campaign committee and the Paget East committee. While he stressed it was the Premier, and not him, who scheduled the by-election, he said the complaints were "a bit outrageous''.

"I knew what the rules were, and I had a sense of what the overall timetable could have been for the election and for the primary,'' he said. "I've made myself aware of what the rules were.

"When you're an approved candidate, you get a copy of the Constitution. It's not as if any of this stuff was not widely available.'' Further, "most of the ones who were signed up were done from Sunday on,'' he said.

Mrs. Kathryn Gibbons, the wife of Sen. Gibbons, said she had also resigned her duties as UBP executive officer with respect to the Paget East primary until a candidate was adopted.

Sen. Pitman said everything was done in accordance with the UBP constitution and he would reply to Dr. Harris' letter today. "I would have liked to have seen an extra day or so for letting members sign up, but that really is a decision of the branch,'' he said.

"The central office stays clear of getting involved in a branch decision.'' Mr. Harry Cox, who claimed he is an approved UBP candidate in Paget East, said the handling of the primary "demonstrated a total disregard for decency'' and "an abuse of the electorate of Paget East''.

He called on the electorate of the constituency to challenge the decisions, which "make it easy to understand how a party has subverted the interests of the electorate to its own purposes''.

A meeting at which Sen. Gibbons and Dr. Harris are to speak has been set for next Thursday at 8 p.m. at St. Paul's Christian Education Centre in Paget.

Meanwhile, Progressive Labour Party Leader Mr. Frederick Wade said Ms Jennifer Smith MP had been named to head a campaign commitee for the Paget East by-election. A PLP candidate would likely be named next week.

Developer Mr. Sanders Frith Brown is expected to soon announce he will run in Paget East as an Independent.

Mrs. Kim Young, the former chairman of the Women's Advisory Council, said her application to run in the UBP primary was refused on Tuesday because she had not been a paid-up member for the required 30 days.

"I thought that due to the circumstances, they might have considered waiving the rule,'' she said.