asked the simple question: "Are you in favour of direct elections
in 1988?"
Confronted with such obfuscating choices, 40% and 45%
respectively of the public polled in each of the two surveys
failed to understand the questions posed or said they had no
opinion. AGB McNair reported that only 12% and 15% respectively
of the public polled in each of the two surveys were in favour of
direct elections in 1988.
No
These findings have been challenged by experts in the
field, both statisticians and other marketing survey companies.
They say that the questions were much too complicated and
technical, and presented choices that were non-exclusive.
useful conclusion, they say, can be drawn from these findings.
Interestingly, these two government-commissioned surveys are the
only ones that show proponents of direct elections to constitute
a tiny minority of the population.
Privately commissioned surveys,
professional polling companies, tell a
also carried
completely
out by
different
story.
They show overwhelming support in favour of the
introduction of direct elections in 1988.
In the summer of 1987, following the publication of the
1987 Green Paper on Political Review, a total of 10 territory-
wide surveys were conducted by different bodies to gauge public
reaction to the introduction of a system of direct elections to
the Legislative Council in 1988. The results showed remarkable
uniformity in that the overwhelming response in each survey was
in favour of the introduction of direct elections in 1988.
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