Bermudians For Referendum are once again campaigning for your signature. This time to collect an additional 1,023 signatures needed to surpass the group?s new target of 51 percent.

The group announced it had to make absolutely sure there is no doubt about how the majority of Bermudians felt about a Referendum. And the only way to do this, member Mike Marsh felt, is by campaigning for signatures to reach the ?important threshold? of 51 percent of the turn-out in the last election.

From today eleven signature centres will be open to registered voters ? who did not sign the last petition ? to be counted. Mr. Marsh said the organisation would continue to campaign until they have surpassed the target of 51 percent and to meet this target they only need another 1,023.

As with the previous 17,000 signatures, these too will be audited for duplications and validity. The organisation is made up of Bermudians, black and white and from all walks of life and deny statements that they are an anti-independence group.

?We feel that every Bermudian deserves the right to control his or her destiny and to be able to vote yes or no to the one single issue of independence by way of referendum, not by way of a general election,? he said.

The decision should be, he feels, without political spin, interference or pressure.

Mr. Marsh said 75 percent of the total electorate voted in the July 2003 election and the 14,008 valid petition signatories collected earlier this year represented 47,5 percent of the total turn-out. In the ?Initiative and Referendum Institute? report, a copy of which was included in the packages to the Governor and Premier, the Institute recommended that five percent of the total electorate should be more than sufficient to warrant a referendum.

?We already have more than seven times that percentage of the total electorate,? Mr. Marsh said, adding that the Bermudians For Referendum petition would be open to anyone who missed the opportunity to sign before, to do so now.

The previous petition closed in June this year. A referendum is the purest form of democracy, Mr. Marsh said, adding that it was about freedom for the people, freedom of expression and means one vote by one person on one issue. Places were forms will be available to be signed include: Sousa?s Gardens, Terceira?s Port Royal Service Centre, Paraquet Restaurant, Aberfeldy Nurseries, Pulp and Circumstance, Otto Wurz, The Spot Restaurant, Great Things, Speciality Inn, Esso Collector?s Hill Tiger Market and the St. George?s Esso Service Station.

Members, pen in hand, will also be heading into the field with their badges and will be at Windsor Place in Hamilton every day after 2 p.m.

Mr. Marsh said the new audited list of signatures will once again be submitted to both the Governor and the Premier, but no decision had yet been taken as to when the signature drive will close. Member, Herman Basden said he was encouraged to see how many young Bermudians were interested in the subject of a referendum.

?They are more informed and better educated than we give them credit for,? he said, adding that it was important to get their ?voice? on this topic during the upcoming holidays and heading out onto the streets at this time was the right thing to do.