A copy of the petition for referendum, handed to the Premier on Tuesday by the Bermudians for Referendum, can be viewed by the public at the Bermuda National Library in Hamilton.

Organiser, Michael Marsh said yesterday the Government Archives did not want a copy, only the originals, which they could not yet part with.

He said the head librarian at the Bermuda National Library, Joanne Brangman happily accepted the copy which will be available for scrutiny.

The document includes a copy of the Initiative and Referendum Report ? which discusses the initiatives of referendums in Europe and how many countries have used referendums in the last century.

Members of the public can view the document at the upstairs information desk.

A copy of the petition was also handed to the Governor on September 14.

Meanwhile, yesterday afternoon the Government Archivist, Karla Hayward sent out a press release to clarify "misleading" comments given to the media by Mr. Marsh on Tuesday concerning the Government Archive "not wanting a copy of the petition".

Ms Hayward said there was never any question of the Archives not wanting to have the Bermudians for Referendum petition also deposited there and it was misleading of Mr. Marsh to say otherwise.

"We even suggested that the Cabinet Office might deposit the copy when his group presented it to the Premier on Tuesday," she said.

Ms Hayward confirmed that she had declined to give Mr. Marsh permission to present his petition via a press conference at the archives.

"Without first consulting the Archives, Mr. Marsh had invited the media to be present."

Ms Hayward felt this would disrupt the operations of her department.

Explaining that as the BIC ceased to exist on August 15, the records of BIC were deposited into the Bermuda Archives in accordance with the Bermuda Archives Act 1974 (b) which requires the immediate legal transfer of the records of a Commission, Committee, or Board of Inquiry "that has ceased to exist".

Ms Hayward went on to say that when records are deposited into the Bermuda archives, they are normally closed for 30 years, but the Cabinet agreed that the BIC records should be opened immediately.

"We are an access agency and we believe that people have the right to access Government information as fully and as freely as we can make it available," she said.

Ms Hayward was fully supportive of public access to the BIC records held at the Archives.

"We believe we have a role to play in educating the public and we are happy to participate in the process. Therefore we are happy to accept the Bermudians for Referendum petition and we indicated as much to Mr. Marsh," she said.

She added that they in fact informed Mr. Marsh that the Archives would like to have the original petition rather than a copy, along with any organisational records such as minutes and correspondence of the Bermudians for Referendum group.