Issues relating to public opinion polls
1. Introduction
The Consultative Committee for the Basic Law (CCBL) is a non-governmental consultative organization. According to its Constitution, it should "conduct democratic consultations and receive diverse views" by "seeking common ground while reserving differences, not insisting on unanimity, nor deciding matters by voting". As regards the actual methods of consultation, members of the public have suggested that the CCBL should conduct a public opinion poll or a referendum to gauge public opinion. Similar requests hae also been put forward by members of the CCBL. Although it was suggested in the first round of consultations in 1988 that the CCBL should conduct a public opinion poll or hold a referendum to gauge the opinions of people in Hong Kong on the Draft Basic Law for Solicitation of Opinions, the proposal was not adopted by the CCBL. Instead, the results of the public opinion polls conducted by outside bodies and organizations were presented as an annex to the consultation report for submission to the Drafting Committee. The CCBL did not comment or elaborate on the methods or the results of these opinion polls. Before the second round of consultations rommenced m early 1989, the special groups of the CCBL held meetings to discuss the consultation on the Basic Law (Draft). At these meetings, some members proposed that the CCBL should conduct a public opinion poll or a referendum to gauge the opinions of people in Hong Kong on the Basic Law (Draft) or on some of its sections or chapters, such as that on the political structure. However, there was no unanimous view. Members of the public also put forward quite a number of suggestions regarding this issue. The Executive Committee of the CCBL held four meeting's to discuss the issue which was also put on the agenda for the seventh general meeting of the CCBL. A definite decision on the issue was reached by the Executive Committee of the CCBL at the meeting held on 7 October. The purpose of this paper is to report on the CCBL's discussion on whether or not it should conduct a public opinion poll to gauge the opinions of the public.
2. Public opinion polls and referendums as means of gauging the opinions of the public
2.1 As the consultation on the Basic Law has reached its final stage, some members of the public as well as CCBL members were of the opinion that the CCBL as a consultative organization for the Basic Law should
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