Hong Kong parties across political spectrum tell of doubts about rolling election opinion polls

Pan-democratic political parties and at least one pro-establishment group have cast serious doubt on the reliability of a rolling poll on next month’s Legislative Council elections conducted by the University of Hong Kong’s public opinion programme.

They complained .on Thursday that “misleading” results were being predicted and urged supporters not to respond with strategic voting.

The League of Social Democrats and People Power – two radical pan-democratic parties that have formed an election alliance – questioned the methodology of the poll commissioned by Power of Democracy and three media organisations as they argued it failed to reflect the true picture.

They said the small sample size for each of the five geographical constituencies – between 100 and 300 people – was to blame, as was the failure of the pollsters to mention the candidate in second place on a list when they questioned respondents.

“I have run election campaigns for 31 years and it has never been that hard,” said People Power lawmaker Albert Chan Wai-yip, who is running second on a ticket with the League’s Raphael Wong Ho-ming in New Territories West. Chan is unlikely to win under the proportional representation system.