Bermudians for Referendum has admitted that even if the Premier allows a direct vote on Independence, he may have no legal obligation to heed the result.

BFR campaign organiser Mike Marsh would like to see the Constitution changed so that if a referendum is held Government would be obliged to act upon it.

?If we were to have a referendum on Independence we need to know how binding it would be. The law needs to be changed so people would have a voice in their own democracy,? he said.

?It seems to be possible that the Premier could just ignore a referendum. He seems to think he has it all his own way.?

Mr. Marsh was speaking out after revealing that Mr. Scott had failed to respond to the BFR?s pressure for an announcement on whether a referendum will be held on Independence.

The group delivered a petition with 15,523 signatures demanding this to the Premier on February 2, a total that represents 52.6 percent of those who voted in the 2003 election.

It challenged Mr. Scott to give it an answer on the issue within a week, but Mr. Marsh said this plea has been met with a wall of silence.

Now BFR is calling upon Governor Sir John Vereker for a meeting to listen to concerns. The group says its campaign may lead it to march or even engage in European-level lobbying if he does not agree to this.

?We have not had any response from the Premier at all to our latest petition which is very disappointing,? said Mr. Marsh.

?Because there?s not been any positive response we are following a procedure of steps we will be trying next and therefore I have written a letter to the Governor asking for his guidance on the issue.?

The Governor?s office has in the past indicated to BFR that he does not want to get involved in the issue. However, Mr. Marsh said that he had only delivered his request by hand to Government House on Monday and it was therefore too early to expect a formal response.

?I hope it will be positive, but if he will not meet with us then we will go on to our next step and we could end up taking the campaign to London or Brussels as we are not going to give up,? he pledged.

Nonetheless, he still hopes that the matter can be resolved within Bermuda without bringing the international media spotlight to bear on it.

?That would throw a doubt on the process of democracy in Bermuda and we don?t want to indicate to anyone internationally that we are not living in a democracy. However, we have come to the conclusion that democracy is very much threatened if we don?t get a response from the Premier. It?s not a happy position when the majority of the population would like something and the request is ignored by the people they have elected,? he said.

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.

Neither the Governor nor the Premier could be reached yesterday for comment.