Officials were accused yesterday of misleading the public into thinking municipal councils should be scrapped.
The Provisional Urban Council said the Government had massaged figures to show public opinion favoured its centralisation plan.
Of some 700 submissions from individuals and groups to the Constitutional Affairs Bureau, the council found more supported a merger or the status quo than a disbandment of the municipal councils.
The council said that 297 or 38.8 per cent of submissions wanted to retain or merge the councils, while 250 or 32.7 per cent backed the scrapping of the councils.
Officials had refused to disclose the exact figures of the submissions, saying only that the 'majority' supported scrapping the councils.
The council criticised the Government for focusing on submissions from individuals or groups and neglecting the remaining 4,220 pre-printed submissions or questionnaires.
More than 90 per cent of the pre-printed submissions called for the municipal councils to be retained, the council said.