Largest poll in bid to sway pan-dems
Former Liberal leader to pay HK$250,000 for HKU to interview 5,000 people on reform package
A pro-establishment heavyweight plans to commission the city's largest single opinion poll on the government's electoral reform package next month in a final attempt to persuade at least four pan-democratic lawmakers to support the plan.
Former Liberal Party leader James Tien Pei-chun said he would pay the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme HK$250,000 out of his own pocket, because the party promised members its funds would be used on district services, policy research, recruitment of assistants and office operations, not for a lawmaker to commission polls.
Tien said he selected HKU because the programme's director Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu had worked with pan-democrats previously and they regarded him as a credible professional.
"As I am trying to persuade non-establishment lawmakers … of course [it is better] to commission an institution that the pan-democrats have worked with and trusted," Tien said.
"If I sought help from the One Country Two Systems Research Institute, it would be difficult for me to use its poll results to persuade pan-democrats."
Last month, the government unveiled a reform package that strictly followed Beijing's ruling on political reform.
It proposes that when Hong Kong elects its leader by popular ballot for the first time in 2017, voters will have to choose from two or three hopefuls endorsed by the majority of a 1,200-strong nominating committee.