United Bermuda Party to take Bermuda to Independence before calling a general election, Opposition Leader Mr. Frederick Wade said yesterday.

"It just makes no sense, and it's an insult to Bermudians,'' Mr. Wade told The Royal Gazette .

At a public meeting in Smith's on Tuesday, three Cabinet Ministers said it was Government's plan to use a "yes'' vote in the August 15 referendum to achieve Independence before its current five-year term expires in 1998.

"I felt they wouldn't call an election -- now it's clear,'' Mr. Wade said.

"The Government has finally come clean and said they have no intention of allowing Bermudians to have a vote on the actual Constitution itself.

"The pronouncement that the UBP has no intention of going back to the people for an election before a new Constitution is brought into effect is another reason for Bermudians to abstain in this referendum.'' The fact that the UBP Government had no mandate to raise the Independence issue after the 1993 election makes it "even more reprehensible'', he said.

If there was a "yes'' vote, it was possible Government would have time to take Bermuda to Independence before its term expired, Mr. Wade said. "It's possible, but it really would be racing against the clock.'' And, "Bermudians would be left bewildered.'' While the Progressive Labour Party considered a "yes'' result in the referendum "unlikely'', the Opposition would "do all we could to make sure we had an election before Independence was declared''.

The PLP has appealed to Mr. Tony Baldry, the British Cabinet Minister responsible for Bermuda, on the issue of whether an election would have to be called. After studying the issue, Mr. Baldry wrote Mr. Wade and said it would be up to the Government to decide.

The new Constitution could even alter electoral districts, Mr. Wade said. "It seems to me to be contrary to all common sense, to all political decency, and to history for an old House to go into power under a new Constitution without an election.'' After a Constitutional Conference, the governing party should pass into law what was needed to implement the new Constitution, then call a new election based on that Constitution, he said. The party that won would set the date for Independence, Mr. Wade said.

Some political observers have voiced the theory that the UBP was told after the 1993 election that taking Bermuda to Independence would give the party its only chance for a ninth consecutive general election victory in 1998. On Tuesday, Cabinet Ministers the Hon. Irving Pearman, the Hon. Jerome Dill, and the Hon. David Saul all denied that was the case.

"From the manner in which the Premier is behaving, it's obvious he's getting a lot of bad advice,'' Mr. Wade said. Raising Independence in the hope of increasing UBP fortunes "is some of the bad advice he may have gotten''.

As a result of raising the issue, "he's found himself in worse trouble''.