A citywide survey will be carried out as early as Sept. 21 to gauge whether pro-democracy lawmakers should serve out an extended Legislative Council term or boycott the chamber to protest the government’s decision to delay elections for one year, Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said.

Lam’s party commissioned the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute to conduct the survey because pro-democracy representatives divided over whether to go along with the ruling by China’s National People’s Congress to extend LegCo terms for a year after the Hong Kong government delayed the Sept. 6 election citing COVID-19 concerns or to quit their posts altogether.

Some democrats have said it’s important to stay in the chamber to stop the government being able to pass controversial bills unopposed; others have said there is no legal basis for extending the term of LegCo from four to five years.

More discussion has to be held with fellow democrats on the methodology of the poll and mechanisms to be put in place to ensure the results are followed, Lam added, and this will take a few more weeks.

The institute’s president Robert Chung has proposed that results can only be binding when one of two requirements is met: when more than half of all respondents, regardless of their political stance, decide either way or if more than two-thirds of pro-democracy supporters do so.

But that means the results of the poll may still be indecisive, Lam admitted, adding that it is possible for pro-Beijing supporters to sway the poll results. Therefore, other democrats have to be consulted as to what it would mean for the poll’s legitimacy.

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