Pollster Mulls Survey On Extradition Bill Crisis

Veteran pollster Robert Chung says he is considering doing a survey on whether there is a need to investigate the ongoing extradition bill controversy as well as the scope of such a probe.

“A lot of people are asking, or demanding, some kind of investigation on the incident. I think this is a good reason why we should be collecting public opinion on, let’s say, whether or not to have an investigation,” he said.

“And if there is one, along which direction, the time frame of it, the important questions that should be looked into,” he told RTHK’s Janice Wong.

Chung said the survey would be conducted by his newly launched Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute – but only if he gets enough donations for the organisation to sustain its first year of operation.

So far he's managed to raise just over HK$1 million, which is far less than his original target of HK$6 million.

Chung said the government’s failure to put enough emphasis on public opinion over the extradition bill has created a crisis, and this was the result of the “overconfidence” of Chief Executive Carrie Lam and her administration.

“When they saw opposition, they still thought that it could be pushed through. But it happens that the situation is not quite like that,” he said.

“So their understanding of the public’s resistance against this bill has been underestimated. Especially in the past week or two after so many people demonstrated, and they still thought they could push it through, and that really created the crisis,” he said.