The Democrats have done it. The Liberal Party has done it. So has the government. Weeks before the Legislative Council election, the government and major political parties have commissioned surveys on the popularity ratings of candidates.
Co-sponsored by several media organisations, including the South China Morning Post, the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme has been conducting a rolling survey among all direct election candidates for about two weeks.
While giving a glimpse of the popularity of the candidates, the results have also shed some light on public support for the political parties they belong to and, importantly, the political mood of the populace.
While the results show certain lists of candidates in some geographical constituencies have enjoyed consistent support, there have also been marked fluctuations in the popularity of some aspirants, particularly in fiercely contested constituencies.
That is not surprising, in view of the nature of opinion polls as a snapshot of the views of a group of chosen respondents at one moment in time. The volatility of results has been aggravated by the array of candidates in the election.
This is particularly the case where a number of candidates from the same political camp are competing against each other in the same constituency.
