The majority of voters believe the Opposition should get equal time as the Government on television channel CITV.A recent poll by Mindmaps found 72 percent of voters believed politicians from all parties should have equal access to the publicly-funded station.Seventy-nine percent of whites polled favoured equal time for the Opposition on CITV as opposed to 68 percent of blacks. In terms of gender, 72 percent of men and women polled favoured equal time.Eighteen percent of all people polled said they did not believe the Opposition should get equal time; ten percent responded that they didn’t know.The age group most in favour of equal time for parties was the 55- to 64-year-old age group, of which 83 percent said ‘yes’ to equal time.Twenty-six percent of voters between the ages of 35 and 44 felt the Opposition should not get equal time the highest percentage in any category to say no.The survey was conducted between May 2 and May 12 by Mindmaps, based on a representative sample of 400 Bermuda residents aged 18 and older.Qualified respondents were registered voters who said they were likely to vote in a parliamentary election.Kim Swan, who was elected under the United Bermuda Party banner, called for equal time on CITV earlier this year.He wrote to the Broadcast Commission in April after an interview with Premier Paula Cox aired on the station.Mr Swan questioned whether the interview was deemed a political broadcast by the commission, and he called for equal air time in the House of Assembly.He told The Royal Gazette he has yet to receive a response to his complaint. But he said the spirit of the call for equal time was to “ensure balance and fairness exists within political broadcasts in Bermuda”.“The call was for all Opposition parties to receive equal time on CITV particularly if the broadcast is deemed political,” said Mr Swan.He insisted he was not promoting the “politicising of CITV”.“It is the Premier’s presence on CITV during this, a heightened election season, that has brought the problem to the forefront,” he said.“In the spirit of good governance, it is imperative that fairness must prevail.“Whilst I feel Bermudians are inundated with opinion polls and surveys, the results are consistent with what we have been hearing since we brought this issue to the attention of the Parliament and the public.”Meanwhile, One Bermuda Alliance Senator Michael Dunkley found the opinion poll results “gratifying”.“It is clear now from the inception of CITV that the Opposition has received very little time on camera and that is not acceptable,” he said.“It is gratifying to learn that the majority of people polled feel that the Opposition should be allowed equal time.“Now we look forward to the Government allowing equal time to the Opposition which will allow for a healthy exchange of politics to compliment the many good locally-produced programmes that frequently air on CITV.”A Government spokesman said: “The vast majority of CITV’s content deals completely with non-political subjects.”The spokesman invited “viewers to watch CITV and judge for themselves”.He noted that the concept for CITV came “from the people of Bermuda who asked for a media vehicle that delivered unfiltered information so they could make informed decisions when comparing that information to what was reported in traditional media”.“The mission of CITV is to provide information on Government programmes and initiatives and educational and culturally-based programming that offer vital information for the health, safety and welfare of our community, and which enriches the lives of Bermudians,” he said.