Bermudian Organisation in its fight for greater security for long-term residents and their families.

The Organisation earlier this week asked politicians to speak out for its cause. But no-one has, said PBO spokesman Miss Ann Faria.

"Nobody feels strong enough to come forward and say anything,'' she said last night.

The lack of support prompted the PBO to release a pre-election survey of sitting politicians from both the Senate and the House of Assembly.

"Although we put forth the challenge to all political hopefuls earlier this week, there has been no public respone,'' a PBO statement said.

"We have received verbal support from all parties, but concrete results have not been forthcoming.

"Therefore, we find it necessary to make public the results of this survey carried out earlier this year.'' The survey of politicians from both the last Parliament showed the PBO's push had won bipartisan support though not to any significant levels.

Not one of their six propositions for greater security won more than 44 percent support among the 40 sitting MPs and 11 Senators.

The propositions included: Reducing the age at which Bermudian-born, non-Bermudians may apply for status from 21 years to 18 years; Allowing students, either Bermuda-born or living here since the age of six, while still in school, to work on the Island without the necessity of Immigration requiring their jobs to be advertised; Allowing the same students equal opportunity in applying for all local scholarships; Allowing non-Bermudians, who have lived on the Island for more than 15 years, the ability to renew their work permits without their jobs being advertised, especially those with strong family ties in Bermuda, or those approaching retirement age; and Giving preference or option to residing non-Bermudians for job opportunities before applying for new imported labour.

The PBO came to prominence last winter as more and more long-term Portuguese residents' work permits were not renewed. People who had lived and worked in Bermuda for decades were suddenly faced with the prospect of moving back to birthplaces that were no longer home.

Families were forced to take their children who had lived in Bermuda all their lives. Many did not speak Portuguese.

The PBO wanted more compassionate consideration for long-term residents. Miss Faria said she was heartened by the fact the survey showed support for the PBO cause in both major political parties.

The survey records the positions of each sitting MP and Senator on the propositions.

But of the 41 politicians who responded, more than half declined to answer.

Miss Faria said many of them said their answers were contained in existing party policy.

Strongest support was for giving new jobs preference to residing non-Bermudians over new imported labour.

Least support was for allowing long-term resident students equal rights to all local scholarships.

Other results hovered in 24-32 percentile range among all politcians participating, including the sizeable percentage who declined comment.

"Some of the people we polled were quite keen in support of us,'' Miss Faria said.

" `Something needs to be done,' they said. `But when we asked them for a public statement, nothing happened.''