Law; 111 editorials; 740 columns and commentaries; 105 letters to the editor; and 102 magazine articles. In addition, there were 65 television discussion programmes, not including the informational programmes which introduced the Basic Law. With these opinions. our collection was more comprehensive. Some of the features, letters to the editor and articles in newspapers and magazines are exactly identical to the submissions received by the CCBL. Some have been repeatedly published in different newspapers or magazines. But no matter how many times they have been published or sent in, as long as they are from the same source, the CCBL shall only select one to be processed.
Signature Campaigns
14. During the consultation period, the CCBL only received three signature campaigns launched by organizations, which include the signatures of 2,589 individuals. The majority of them provided their names while only a small number provided their I.D. Card numbers which the CCBL, however, is unable to verify.
Public Opinion Polls
15. The CCBL received 21 reports on public opinion polls during the consultation period. These surveys mainly centre around issues concerning the political structure, the legitimacy of the Basic Law, and confidence in Hong Kong's future. These surveys have different target respondents: some take the general public in Hong Kong as their target respondents while others are confined to a certain district or members of a certain organization. The methods of survey and the forms of questionnaires also differ from one to another. Hence, the CCBL cannot summarize the contents of these surveys in the main text of the consultation report. As the CCBL is not in a position to assess the quality control of these public opinion polls, the results of these polls will be submitted for the reference of the Drafting Committee as an annex to the General Report on the Articles. The annex will not contain any interpretation or evaluation of the results of these polls.
Processing and Collation of Opinions
16. The opinions collected by the CCBL were first sorted out according to their sources and natures and coded. Then they were classified according to the subjects of the
26
