Voters between the ages of 18 and 34 most want to keep the Bermuda Day holiday on its current date — on May 24.

Poll results show that 57 per cent of 400 registered voters who responded to a computer-assisted telephone survey are against changing the May 24 holiday to the Friday before the last Monday in May.

The findings come just one week after Minister of Community, Culture and Sport Wayne Scott said in the House of Assembly that Government was committed to adhering to the polls that were being done.

He was speaking during a debate on a Progressive Labour Party Bill to change the date.

Market researchers Global Reseach, which ran this survey, said they regularly conducted polls on subjects they believed were interesting, and distributed the results.

Nosheen ‘Sheeny’ Syed, chief executive officer for Global Research, said that while the topic was important to a lot of people, “it didn’t feel like a hot-button topic — some topics are really controversial”.

The poll, run between December 1 and 8, asked respondents to choose between two options.

These were: “Bermuda Day should continue to be celebrated on the 24th of May” and “Bermuda Day should be changed to fall on the Friday before the last Monday in May (this would create a long weekend for residents who do not regularly work on Sundays)”.

Global Research said the results were weighted to be representative of Bermuda’s population on age, race and gender, and had a margin of error of plus or minus five per cent, giving it a 95 per cent confidence level.

The sector most strongly in favour of retaining the Bermuda Day holiday on May 24 comprises the youngest voters, between the ages of 18 and 34, some 69 per cent of whom voted against the change.

Thirty per cent said they would like to see it moved to the Memorial Day weekend. Just one per cent said they “don’t know”.

The move would not only create a long weekend but it would coincide with the United States’ Memorial Day holiday, which falls on the last Monday of the month.

The PLP Bill was proposed by Michael Weeks, the Shadow Minister of Community and Cultural Affairs, in the House of Assembly last Friday, and won support from Mr Scott during the debate on its second reading.

The draft legislation is entitled Public Holidays Amendment Act 2014. Mr Scott said that while there seemed to be support for the move, he was awaiting the outcome of a poll on the issue, which was then under way.

“On this side, we committed to adhere to the polls that are being done. On the surface it is something many of us over here think has a lot of merit,” he said last week.

The poll released yesterday that shows the preferred date for the Bermuda Day holiday should be May 24, also shows that 40 per cent of those polled were in favour of the change, with three per cent choosing the “don’t know” option.

Males supported maintaining the status quo at 56 per cent to 41 per cent, while women supported its retention by an even higher percentage — 58 per cent to 40 per cent.

Support for a May 24 holiday with voters in four age groupings older than 35 ranged between 51 per cent and 56 per cent.

Those in favour of changing the holiday ranged from 41 per cent to 47 per cent. “Don’t knows” were between one per cent and six per cent.

Some 55 per cent of blacks and 58 per cent of whites polled are in support of retaining the holiday, while 42 per cent of blacks and 39 per cent of whites voted for the new date.

Three per cent of black voters and four per cent of whites polled chose the “don’t know” option.