Support for Independence continued to fall as the UN Decolonisation Committee arrived on the Island this week.

Support slipped down to just 15.7 percent from 18.9 percent in January, March?s Research Innovations poll also showed that the proportion of Bermudians who have not made up their minds has increased from 15.9 percent to 18.9 percent.

Opposition to the idea has stayed steady at just over 65 percent. Meanwhile support for a referendum allowing Bermudians to make the direct choice has decreased from 69.4 percent to 65.9 percent.

Support for a General Election with Independence as a platform also decreased minutely however, from 20.8 percent to 18.5 percent, while those who were unsure what process they thought should be used increased from 9.9 percent to 15.6 percent. Uncertainty appeared to be the great variable in the poll. With a sample size of 407 people, the poll was conducted via telephone from March 17-21. The margin of error is 3.9 percent.

Bermuda?s young people, aged 18-35, were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of sovereignty ? 84 percent opposed compared to 70.2 percent in January.

Support from young people also decreased significantly from 16.7 percent in January to 8.5 percent in March as a greater proportion appeared to be making up their minds on the issue ? just 7.4 percent said they were unsure, compared to 13.1 percent in January.

Both men and women decreased their support of the idea. Male opposition to the idea also decreased, however, as the proportion of men confessing they were unsure about Independence jumped from 9.8 percent to 17 percent.

Just over a third of the lower income brackets polled confessed to being unsure on the issue, a leap from the 12.2 percent who said they were unsure in January. The high income bracket also appeared less certain, with more than a quarter saying they were unsure compared to 18.5 percent in January.

Support for Independence waned considerably in both high and low income brackets, however, while the middle income bracket alone appeared more certain about its stance: 66 percent no to Independence.

Black Bermudian support for Independence decreased from 26.2 percent in January to 20.9 percent in March, while white support remained virtually the same at 7.7 percent.

As for the question of election or referendum, more and more appear to be unsure.

Those supporting election went from 20.8 percent in January to 18.5 percent in March, while those supporting referendum went from 69.4 percent in January to 65.9 percent in March ? meanwhile those who were uncertain about the issue jumped from 9.9 percent to 15.6 percent.

Young people decreased their support for a referendum considerably, from 66.7 percent to 52.1 percent.

With the proportion of young people supporting an election remaining virtually static, those that were unsure went from 7.1 percent to 20.2 percent.

The Island?s middle-aged increased their support for a referendum from 65.3 percent to 73 percent, while the number of seniors who were unsure increased from 6.7 percent to 13 percent.

The majority of that increase appeared to be defectors from the referendum camp, which decreased to 68.3 percent from 76.3 percent. Again, those in the lower income bracket appeared to have become significantly unsure over the past two months.

Support for both referendum and election decreased significantly in that bracket, while those saying they were unsure increased from 2.2 percent to 24.1 percent.

The high income bracket was certain, however: support for an election totally vanished from 16 percent in January, while support for a referendum leapt from 79.8 percent to 91.8 percent.

Support for an election appeared to be increasing in the middle income brackets (21.7 percent), though the referendum remained the clear winner at 66.5 percent.

The proportion of blacks supporting an election dropped by nearly three percent to 25.7 percent, while those who said they were unsure jumped by just over three percent, to 19.8 percent.

The majority of black Bermudians held their support of a referendum, however (54.9 percent) while whites remained overwhelmingly in favour of the referendum at 87.1 percent. White support of the referendum did slip some six percent, however, with that six percent moving into the unsure category.