With both parties now in support of absentee voting arrangements for Bermuda elections, questions persist as to why the measures could not be put in place for the Island's first single-seat poll.

The Opposition's Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt is putting the blame solely and squarely on Government.

But Jennifer Rhind, who co-wrote a report on absentee voting systems that was tabled in the House of Assembly, says that somehow the system has failed her and hundreds of students and others who will be absent during elections.

"It's a shame that this issue wasn't dealt with in the past year, but it's also a shame that it wasn't dealt with years ago," said Ms Rhind.

"This is not an issue which would be to the detriment of one party or another. Both parties would benefit and really it comes down to our right."

Both parties rejected absentee balloting proposals brought forward by the National Liberal Party (NLP) some years ago.

The third party had proposed that the Island follow a model being used in Canada where voters can get a special ballot kit if they are going to be absent during an election.

Students Roy Richardson, Jennifer Rhind and Victoria Pereira brought the issue back onto the public stage last summer in a Bermuda Sun story. Mr. Barritt backed their call for a system that would allow them to vote from overseas and suggested a standing parliamentary committee be set up to look into it after a general election.

He later encouraged them to conduct a study which he tabled in the House of Assembly with a motion from his party calling for in-principle support for absentee voting.

The paper, written by Ms Rhind, Ms Pereira and Eloisa Mayers, outlined systems in place in four other Commonwealth jurisdictions and recommended the Canadian model for Bermuda.

Mr. Barritt's motion was killed by House Speaker Stanley Lowe when Premier Jennifer Smith brought a take note motion saying that a Government committee had been established to study ways in which the franchise can be broadened.

Last month the committee's interim report supporting a postal ballot was tabled in the House, but the Premier called the election weeks later.

That led to charges that the ruling party had hijacked the motion, then failed to follow through before calling the elections. The PLP, which has long criticised the UBP for calling elections when overseas students were not on the Island, responded by saying that it has always supported broadening the franchise and that an absentee ballot system cannot be implemented "flippantly".

And Premier Smith cited overseas students as a reason for a summer election when she announced the date last week.

But people from both sides of the political divide have complained that the elections come at a peak travelling time Bermudians. And there are still no provisions for housebound people to vote. The roughly 750 housebound and 750 to 900 students represent about five percent of the Island's eligible voters.

Mr. Barritt pointed out yesterday that the Premier's take note motion was tabled in November but the Committee only started meeting in mid-January - proving that the ruling party had in fact "hijacked" his motion.

"The irony of it was that after reviewing everything what did they conclude? That the absentee ballot was the way to go," he said. "Well, the students looked at it and came to the conclusion that a postal ballot was the best way to go and they provided sample legislation."

A system could have been in place in time for the next election had there not been any politicking with the issue, he said.

"If an idea is a good idea and it could be done, it should be done," he said. "In this case time was clearly not the enemy, all it required was the will. They clearly didn't have the will - and they were practically spoon-fed the legislation."

He denied a suggestion that his party could be accused of playing politics with the issue and using the students for political gain.

"People can judge that for themselves," he said. But the party caucus had given him the go ahead after he had presented the students report. "I think that's one of the reasons I am an MP - that is to bring forward good ideas to the House."

As Opposition his party could only bring forward in principle motions and so it was not a question of the UBP stealing the initiative from the Government side, he said. "Government could have taken all the credit in the world and said `we agree with this and we are going to put in the legislation'. But that's not what we got. Instead we got a manufactured motion."

"It's the age old thing of what politics is all about - upstaging one another," says Ms Rhind who now has a political science degree. In hindsight she and her fellow students should probably have gone to Government first, she added. "Or they should have approached us."