Opinion | How Hong Kong’s electoral system only discourages political moderates
Gary Cheung says the proportional representation system has nurtured radical voices, leading to a fragmented legislature. However, with both sides seemingly in their comfort zones, there’s little hope of change
The findings of the survey commissioned by the Path of Democracy, in which 41.9 per cent of the 1,010 respondents interviewed between October 12 and 17 identified themselves as moderates, came as a “surprise” to the group’s convenor, Ronny Tong Ka-wah.
The poll, conducted by the University of Hong Kong’s public opinion programme, found that 28.4 per cent supported the pan-democrats and 11.4 per cent said they backed the pro-establishment camp.
Tong, who resigned as a lawmaker and quit the Civic Party in June to advocate a moderate path to democracy, said the findings showed that the level of support for the pan-democratic and pro-establishment camps may no longer follow conventional wisdom. Over the past two decades, it has been the case that pan-democrats won nearly 60 per cent of the popular vote and the government-friendly camp took about 40 per cent in Legislative Council elections.
Noting that the poll found more than 53 per cent of interviewees felt it was necessary to communicate with Beijing, Tong believes there may now be a larger proportion of moderates in Hong Kong.
Having a small but fervent support base is enough to win a seat even if you go against the majority view
But Tong and his group didn’t perhaps need to fork out thousands of dollars on a survey to discover that a substantial majority of Hongkongers see themselves as moderates; it’s actually not that surprising.
According to a poll commissioned by the Post last September, some 56 per cent of 1,004 respondents considered their political stance as “the middle ground or have no preference”. Some 33 per cent identified themselves as “democrats” while another 7.4 per cent said they were “pro-Beijing”. The poll was also conducted by HKU’s public opinion programme.