Business owners are being urged to “make as much noise as they can” in protest of the new city voting system.Angry business leaders are threatening to launch what they hope will be a large protest against the controversial voting changes. They say they are so fed up with the way they have been treated that they feel like refusing to pay their taxes.The Senate recently rubber-stamped the new system for elections in Hamilton and St George’s, giving all residents on the electoral register the right to vote, and abolishing multiple votes for business owners.The Municipalities (Election) Order has already prompted much criticism from Opposition politicians who believe property owners could end up like those who famously dropped tea into Boston Harbour in 1773. Jim Butterfield, owner of Butterfield & Vallis, said he felt so strongly that he wanted to head to East Broadway waving a placard asking ‘why take my vote away?’He said: “Businesses are not happy and I’m urging the business community to stand up and make some noise about this.“All too often we sit there politely and take whatever is thrown at us, that’s what Bermudians do. But enough’s enough.“I am going to make as much noise as I can and I’d urge every business to do the same thing.“With lots of businesses we can make a stand. If we don’t get a vote then maybe we won’t pay our taxes.”Mr Butterfield said the new legislation had been “swept through in a hurry”. He is now “calling for change” as he believes both businesses and residents should be given the vote.He said: “The city’s been ruled by too few people for a long time and now even fewer people are going to have their say.“Of course they need to include the residents, they need to include more people not less.“But just residents alone is a very small group of people, it will be too tight a network.“Besides, those who live in the city tend to be very transient, people are only here for a year or two. In contrast some businesses have been going strong for hundreds of years.”Several businesses are said to have contacted the Chamber of Commerce to voice their concerns and ask what can be done. But The Royal Gazette was unable to confirm this before it went to press.Phil Barnett, who runs the Island Restaurant Group, which includes Pickled Onion and Hog Penny, agrees the latest legislation is “not the answer”.He said: “It’s the no taxation without representation argument, it’s completely disenfranchising businesses. It’s not democracy at all, they have taken away our rights.”Public Works Minister Derrick Burgess, who tabled the legislation, did not respond to our requests for comment.