A Bermudians for Referendum campaigner has said the group is ?very disappointed? with the responses received from Premier Alex Scott and Governor Sir John Vereker after pressing them for a direct vote on Independence. Mike Marsh had previously criticised Mr. Scott for failing to respond to a letter delivered to him on February 2 along with a pro-referendum petition containing 15,523 signatures. According to the group, the total number of signatures represents 52.6 percent of those who voted in the 2003 election and 301 more than the number of votes the Progressive Labour Party received. In the letter, the group challenged Mr. Scott to give an answer on the issue within a week. When this was not forthcoming, the group wrote to the Governor to ask for a meeting so they could outline their concerns to him.

However, Mr. Marsh said yesterday that while a reply dated February 16 has been received from the Premier, the contents were not what they were hoping for. The group was also disappointed with the reply they received from the Governor on Saturday, February 18 repeating his earlier position that he does not wish to get involved with the issue. Although he did not wish to make public the exact contents of each response, Mr. Marsh said: ?The bottom line is that we have not really advanced at all. The answer from the Premier indicates that he is not listening to the people and the response from the Governor is nothing new. We will be having a meeting soon to discuss where we go from here and I can?t exclude any option.?

Although the Premier has previously dropped hints that there is likely to be a referendum on Independence on either the day of a General Election or one year after, BFR believes this should take place before the polls.