A survey which said that six out of ten residents in Bermuda think Premier Ewart Brown should resign for his Guantánamo actions was "statistically sound and valid", pollsters insisted yesterday.

Research.bm denied a claim from the PLP that the independent survey was "fatally flawed" and said the party had incorrectly interpreted the results of its study.

The results of the poll, which revealed that 80 percent of people disagreed with the way Dr. Brown handled the Uighurs affairs, were published a week ago.

The PLP responded with a statement criticising the "flawed methodology", claiming the poll did not reflect Bermuda's racial demographic.

But Leslie Steede, research manager at Research.bm, explained yesterday that the results of the questionnaire were tabulated to ensure that appropriate importance was given to those under-represented in the poll.

"As a research firm, we pride ourselves in providing all of our clients with statistically valid data," said Dr. Steede, adding that the PLP's claim challenged the credibility of the company's methodology.

"The research study was statistically sound and valid.

"The PLP correctly reported that the sample comprised 36 percent black respondents, 51 percent white respondents and 13 percent mixed/other respondents, yet Bermuda's demographic breakdown is 55 percent black, 34 percent white, and seven percent mixed.

"However, the PLP's incorrect interpretation of the research results did not take into consideration that the data was weighted to be representative of the population."

He said when a sample is collected and does not accurately reflect the population demographic of Bermuda, as taken from the 2000 census, he calculates how far it is out and uses statistical software to apply the correct amount of "weight" to the responses.

"You either weight the demographic up or down," he said. "It's like giving the under-represented demographic, giving their responses, more of an influence."

In last week's survey, after the results were "weighted", the frequencies for race were 55 percent black, 30 percent white and nine percent mixed/other — a statistically representative sample of Bermuda's population.

Dr. Steede added: "The methodology section of all Research.bm reports, including this one, clearly mentions that the data is weighted."