The campaign to make next month's Legco by-elections a 'de facto referendum' on democratisation is a failure, the government's chief adviser declared yesterday.
Professor Lau Siu-kai, the head of the Central Policy Unit, said its surveys had consistently shown that more than half the people opposed the campaign.
Five lawmakers from the League of Social Democrats and the Civic Party resigned from their seats to trigger the polls, hoping to offer voters the chance to show they wanted 'genuine' democracy. Campaign organisers rejected Lau's claim.
Lau said the unit had conducted more than three public opinion polls in recent months - he could not recall how many exactly, nor over what time period they had been done. Each had a sample size of about 1,000.
In each survey, more than half the respondents said they opposed the movement for a 'de facto referendum' and thought it had failed.
Citing the findings and those of others, Lau said people did not think the campaign would put pressure on Beijing to compromise on electoral reform, and felt it lacked large-scale support.