News that the Boundaries Commission report will be publicly distributed was greeted positively yesterday by a constitutional lobby group.

But The Association for Due Process continued to maintain that the report, which was handed over to the Governor yesterday, should have been released to the public in draft form before it was finalised.

Association secretary Warren Cabral said the Commission Chairman had promised the report would be made public but the Commission was using erroneous census figures when public meetings were held in January.

Preliminary census data "was off by hundreds of voters in each constituency", Mr. Cabral said.

"It wasn't until July that final census figures were made available to the Commission."

As a result, Mr. Cabral argues, the public gave opinions "on the basis of wholly inadequate data".

"We feel that the report which was based on final census data should have been made available to the public."

The Commission, he said, had "frustrated" the public's statutory right to express an opinion.

"How can you do that when the data was wrong ? Everybody knew it was wrong, including the media, and nobody did anything about it."

He said as the Minister responsible for the census, the Premier "bears some responsibility for the public being misled".

Acting Governor Tim Gurney said yesterday that arrangements are being made for the report to be sent to the House of Assembly and be distributed to the wider public.

The Boundaries Commission was empowered by an order in council last year to recommend the number, and boundaries, of constituencies in single seat electoral system.

After being debated in the House it must be sent, together with a report of the debate to Whitehall and the U.K. Government will then decide on the next step before making another order to change the system.

"I am very glad to hear that the Governor is going to make it available - ideally before the House meets so we can have an intelligent discussion," said Mr. Cabral.

Mr. Cabral added that the public should also have access to mapping software used by the Commission to come up with the recommended boundaries but that the Government has refused to release it to him despite having sent in an application form with a $2,400 cheque.

The software was demonstrated to the public at open meetings with the Commission in January.

Mr. Cabral said it was "essential" to analysing the report and that without it the public cannot test the recommendations against other scenarios.

He added that Government's refusal to release the software added to a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights which states that parties to an inquiry should have the same tools.

Last year a British judge threw out an application by the Association for judicial review of the UK Government's handling of Constitutional reform.

The Association had maintained that the Constitution cannot be changed without a conference.

When the process got underway, the group focussed on demanding public access and providing information to the public.

Mr. Cabral said the Association sees itself as a watchdog for the public and a possible ground for future legal action would be that the public right to express their opinion was violated.