Exclusive Sunday Morning Post eve-of-poll survey reveals sex scandal is likely to hurt Democrats
A record number of voters will turn out for today's Legislative Council election, but the Democratic Party's share of the vote could slip because of the prostitution scandal involving its candidate Alex Ho Wai-to, according to an exclusive eve-of-poll survey carried out for the Sunday Morning Post.
The most up-to-date poll of voter intentions, commissioned by the Post and conducted by the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Programme, found that 85.3 per cent of 520 people interviewed on Friday planned to vote today.
Pollster Robert Chung Ting-yiu predicted the turnout would reach 52 to 57 per cent, perhaps surpassing the record of 53 per cent in 1998. The turnout in 2000 was 43.5 per cent.
'We are witnessing a last-minute surge in voters' propensity to vote,' he said. 'My hunch is that some voters feel that the race for the candidates they support is getting tight, and their votes have become more critical.'
Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, called on the 3.2 million possible voters to exercise their civic rights, no matter who they voted for or even if they just cast a 'blank vote'.