My Take | Hong Kong pan-democrats experience some shocking numbers

Far fewer people turned up on Sunday for the first pro-democracy march since the end of the Occupy protests. That was followed by a dispiriting survey on the (un)popularity of local lawmakers by fellow pan-democrat Robert Chung Ting-yiu, director of the public opinion programme at the University of Hong Kong.

"Our latest survey shows that the popularity of pro-establishment councillors seems to be recovering, while that of pan-democratic councillors is still going down," he said.

As Michael DeGolyer, head of Baptist University's Hong Kong Transition Project, recently observed on RTHK radio, the Occupy movement has paradoxically galvanised conservative and pro-establishment groups.

Rally organisers had expected 50,000 marchers on Sunday, but only 13,000 showed up by their own estimate. The activists claimed the low turnout did not mean less support but that people wanted more radical actions.

Really? From Chung's latest survey, the pan-democrats are still the big losers. The four most popular lawmakers in the survey are all pro-establishment leaders: Legco President Jasper Tsang Yok-sing (62), New People's Party chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee (46.3), Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong head Tam Yiu-chung (44.1) and fellow DAB leader Starry Lee Wai-king (42.9). (The survey works on a scale of 0-100.)

They are followed by pan-democrats Alan Leong Kah-kit (42.4) and Emily Lau Wai-hing (40.4). All other best-known pan-democratic lawmakers fall below 40. On a comparable scale, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's latest rating is 42.1. That puts him on par with the least unpopular pan-dems but miles ahead of such perennial pan-democratic loudmouths as Leung Kwok-hung (37.7), Albert Chan Wai-yip (35.8) and Wong Yuk-man (34.5).