Government Sen. Calvin Smith last night said Government's plans to re-draw boundaries and reduce the number of MPs was in line with the rules of the Constitution.

The Progressive Labour Party Senator said people had no need to worry about changes to the present Constitution.

He said the Commission formed to oversee the changes would make recommendations concerning the best allocation of seats on the basis that boundaries must be easily identifiable.

If the Commission gives the proposals the go-ahead, he said voters would still be represented in the same way as in the past.

"This is no simple task given that the boundaries will most likely be determined by grouping very unequal census zones to form constituencies as near to equality as possible,'' he said.

"Further, given the requirement that the number of seats in Parliament must be reduced, then the task of the Boundaries Commission becomes one of determining several sets of constituency boundaries to correspond to several sets of Parliamentary seats.'' He said it was worth remembering that the Commission itself would be appointed by the Governor, with two members being recommended by the Premier and two being recommended by the leader of the Opposition. The Governor appoints the chairman of the Commission and a member of the judiciary.

Sen. Smith said the commission members would decide on the boundaries and then allocate the number of seats to match.

He added: "This procedure is not only very simple, but it is also fully in line with the provisions of the Constitution.

"The only difference between this process and previous boundary alignments is that, in this case, parish boundaries will be ignored and several selections of boundaries will be presented to Parliament for a final decision.

"The 40 men and women who sit in Parliament have been empowered to represent the views of Bermuda's voting public and to take decisions on their behalf.

"This is as good as it gets from the point of view of a poliitical democracy.'' Sen. Calvin Smith