The anti-franchise act designed to cut McDonald's out of Bermuda is set to pass the House of Assembly -- despite rumours over Constitutional problems.

And it is believed unlikely there will be much argument after rebel United Bermuda Party MP Ann Cartwright DeCouto rises to introduce the Prohibited Restaurants Act for its third and final reading on June 20.

Last night, Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto -- a lawyer -- poured cold water on claims that the retroactive part of the act was illegal under Bermuda's Constitution.

She said: "I have been through this. When I do this on the 20th it will be the sixth time it's been before the House of Assembly -- the bill is absolutely fine.'' It has been reported that Attorney-General Elliott Mottley's legal opinion is that the bill is unconstitutional and would recommend that new Governor Thorold Masefield not sign it into law. Yesterday, Mr. Mottley refused to confirm or deny the existence of a legal opinion on the matter.

But another of Government's backbench rebels, lawyer Trevor Moniz, said: "You can't just consider retroactivity in a vacuum, as it were.

"It is not something in normal circumstances which is considered to be desirable -- but it's not unlawful. It's used sometimes in the Budget by the Minister of Finance.'' He added: "It was claimed an opinion exists, but the opinion never appeared.

Now we're going through the same lot of rubbish again.'' Mr. Moniz said he expected the bill to pass without objection from the bulk of the UBP, who voted against the bill on earlier occasions.

He added: "But we shall see -- I think the view of the public was pretty clear. The vast majority of the public were against McDonald's.'' Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto caused a massive split in Government last year when she introduced a private member's bill to outlaw restaurants with a foreign flavour.

The legislation was designed to block operations like McDonald's -- but only covered restaurants which started operations after May 10, 1996.

The backbench revolt began after Minister of Finance Grant Gibbons earlier that year approved an application by Grape Bay Ltd. -- a company run by ex-Premier Sir John Swan and Government backbencher Maxwell Burgess -- to operate a McDonald's. Previous Government policy appeared to be against such franchise operations, but Dr. Gibbons insisted the approval signalled no shift in position.

Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto, Mr. Moniz and three other MPs, Dr. Clarence Terceira, C.V. (Jim) Woolridge and Dr. David Dyer, all now Ministers, voted with the PLP to pass the anti-franchise act.

They also voted with the Opposition on a motion of censure against then-Premier David Saul for his role in the burger war -- a first for Bermuda.

Mr. Woolridge said he would be voting with the rebel block, despite sitting in Cabinet with the Works and Engineering portfolio.

He added: "The Opposition have indicated they have every intention of supporting us, so I don't see a problem. I don't think there will be any objections as Parliament has already spoken twice.

"It's a private member's bill -- not a Government bill. The five of us were the proposers of the bill and I don't think anything has changed.'' Mr. Woolridge added that three of the rebels had become Ministers under Dr.

Saul on the understanding they would always vote for curbing fast-food franchises.

And he said: "I assume we will be working on the principle that Dr. Saul's word would be honoured. I think we should be looking forward to building and winning the next election.'' The PLP, however, are unlikely to miss the opportunity to -- at some point -- hammer away at three Ministers rebelling against the views of their Cabinet colleagues. But Party Leader Jennifer Smith could not be contacted for comment last night.