defend their listings, promising: "It'll be alright on the night.'' Officers in the Registry General are working overtime to blank out any errors on the list, so all 36,000 voters can mark their Xs on Monday.

Deputy Registrar General Lionel Dowling said the office had received only "a handful'' of complaints.

And he said: "We are doing the best job we can under extreme pressure.'' The Registry has been criticised by several voters angry their names have not been added to the list.

Some Bermudians leaving or returning to the Island on November 9 claimed they were not being allowed to vote in advance.

A loophole in the Parliamentary Election Act only allows advance votes for people absent on Election Day, without specifying times.

Meanwhile, a series of clerical errors have been blamed for voiding names on the register, with other voters claiming application forms got mixed up or saying computer errors skipped their listing.

One couple, called Simons, went to check they were eligible to vote, only to find the wife was listed as Simons and the husband was listed as Simmons.

He was told the spelling error meant he could not cast his vote on Election Day and officials at United Bermuda Party headquarters have taken up his case with the Registry.

But Mr. Dowling told The Royal Gazette : "I would suggest that the gentleman comes to our office so we can check his original registration form to see if it was a clerical error on our part, by adding the extra M. "If it's proven, we can amend the error in his constituency, which would qualify him to vote.

"But obviously, if the form came in as Simmons then that's a different matter. After all, he may not have filled it in himself. Someone may have done it for him and thought the name was Simmons.'' Mr. Dowling said the Registry had not been flooded with complaints.

"I have known of only a few and I would definitely not say a lot,'' he added.

"Where we have been able to, we have been amending the records accordingly.

In some cases, it's been simple human error on the part of the voters and in other cases, it's been computer error on our part.

"But we want people to know that we are not making deliberate mistakes and we are endeavouring to correct them before polling day.

"We haven't had too many complaints out of 36,000 voters. We've just had a handful of cases.'' GOVERNMENT GVT