Efforts to modernise the Corporation of Hamilton franchise have come too late to affect municipal elections in July, says Corporation chief Ed Benevides.

He said the Corporation had lobbied Government for changes to allow all voters registered for national elections living within the city's boundaries to cast their vote.

It would remove the stipulation that householders must not be in arrears over Corporation taxes in order to cast a ballot.

However he said the proposals sent to Government have not been agreed.

The Corporation is planning a PR push to increase turn-out and is hoping to at least double the number of voters on the electoral roll from the current figure of just 459 out of a possible 1,900.

"The Corporation is making a major effort to get more people registered."

To be eligible, voters must be adult Bermudians owning or renting a residential or business unit with the city who have their taxes paid up.

Mr. Benevides told The Royal Gazette: "We submitted in October some suggested changes to broaden the franchise.

"This would include all persons registered in the city who are registered for parliamentary elections.

"It would eliminate the taxation requirement. Currently if you are in arrears for more than 90 days you are removed."

However the vote given to nominees of businesses would still have been dependent on that business being paid up, said Mr. Benevides.

He said Government had acknowledged receipt of the suggestions.

"But we haven't heard any effort on changes. It doesn't look like anything is going to come down the pipeline for the July elections."

Facing election on July 16 are the mayor, three aldermen and five councillors. The nomination date will be July 9.

Mr. Benevides, who is chief operations officer, said he didn't know if Mayor Sutherland Madeiros would run again.

He said: "No one has been telling me they are definitely running or definitely not running."

The Corporation also pushed for other changes including some kind of remuneration for time spent on Corporation work, along the lines of stipends currently paid to Government board members.

"It was felt a good number of the working public are put off by the fact that there is no payment for the time available.

"They don't have the luxury of giving up a lot of time."

Also proposed were removing some of the hierarchy of the current three-tier set-up.

One suggestion was removing the aldermen tier and instead having only common councillors below the mayor.

Currently every resolution must have the support of at least two of the three aldermen and the mayor to pass.

The proposals would have still given the mayor veto powers. The resolution could go back to the councillors who could override any further mayoral veto if they had seven in support.

Mr. Benevides said the Corporation was still pushing ahead with the waterfront project, and core samples had been taken from the harbour floor for an environmental impact study.

However, it could be 20 years before the ambitious project, which will see a waterfront theatre, park and underground car park, is completed.