Absentee balloting, fixed-term elections and the right of voters to recall MPs are still in the works, despite a long silence from Government on political reform.

The measures were part of the One Bermuda Alliance election platform, and a governance committee was set up in May of last year to research them.

“The Government has not forgotten about its proposals for absentee balloting and other reform relating to voting,” said Senator Michael Fahy, the Home Affairs Minister, who added that as much as the Ministry wished to see electoral reform “achieved overnight, it is not possible”.

He said: “We remain committed to reform — it is coming.”

However, he declined to state when.

Exactly when the OBA administration intends to deliver reform has been questioned repeatedly by former party member John Barritt.

Fixed-term elections stood prominently on the party’s list in the run-up to the 2012 election, as well as absentee balloting for travellers and college students.

Jonathan Starling, who stood as an Independent candidate in that election, voiced dismay that the latest Throne Speech made no mention of the promised reform.

“I’m sure many voters also recall the university students who protested that they were being disenfranchised by the election date, due to the lack of a mechanism for such students to vote from overseas,” Mr Starling said.

“They were told that their protests came too late to make a difference and, more or less, they should have made it an issue beforehand.

“There is a risk that we will leave these political reforms too late again to make a difference and we’ll see yet another election come by without these reforms to improve our political system.”

Mr Starling, who maintains a political and news blog, said that he had offered a draft Right of Recall Act for public consultation, and called on members of the public to push their MPs for action on political reform — including campaign finance laws, as a result of the “Jetgate” affair in which some $350,000 was donated to the OBA campaign by a group of American businessmen.

That scandal resulted in the resignation of Craig Cannonier as Premier and an OBA investigation that produced no conclusive answers as to how the money had been spent.