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15 March, 2012

The University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme (POP) releases on 15 March 2012 (Thursday) that it will co-host the “3.21 Mock Civil Referendum Project” with The Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong (BGCA). Integrated results from both sides will be released in conjunction by BGCA on 22 March. A total of 140 primary and secondary schools or so have joined this project up till now.

POP plans to set up 10 polling stations across the territory in Hong Kong on the day of the “3.23 Civil Referendum Project” and there will be mobile voting vehicles in areas not covered by the polling stations for the local citizens to vote. The design of our online voting system has been completed and will be open for public testing tomorrow, iPhone users can also download the voting application starting from tomorrow.

The fund raising progress of the project is as follows (as of 15 March, 2012 noon):

Pledged donors（Including 242 “anonymous” with 6 suspicious cases removed）	545
Actual donors（Including 127 “anonymous” donors）	327
Pledged amount of donations	HK$829,061
Initial confirmed amount of donations	HK$748,530
Mean of donations（In terms of initial confirmed amount of donations）	HK$2,289
Median of donations（In terms of initial confirmed amount of donations）	HK$500
Mode of donations（In terms of initial confirmed amount of donations）	HK$100

“3.21 Mock Civil Referendum Project”

POP will co-host the “3.21 Mock Civil Referendum Project” with BGCA. Paper and pen voting will be responsible by BGCA and the electronic voting will be responsible by POP. Results of the 3.21 voting in schools will be merged with results of the “Youngsters vote for the next CE” activity initiated by BGCA and will be released together by BGCA on 22 March. Up till now, 140 primary and secondary schools or so have joined this project. POP calls for interested schools to sign up through our activity website. POP has already provided initial guidelines to schools that have already joined the electronic voting.

Polling stations arrangement of the “3.23 Civil Referendum Project”

POP has confirmed initially that there will be 10 polling stations in different districts of Hong Kong on the day of the “3.23 Civil Referendum Project”:

1 .The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
2.The exhibition gallery of the Tuen Mun Town Hal
3.Y-Square (Y2) in Chai Wa
4.Assembly Hall, 6 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong (HKU)

5. Ho Tim Hall of The University of Hong Kong

6. Main Campus of The University of Hong Kong
7. City University of Hong Kong
8. Hong Kong Federation of the Blind (Shun Chi Street, Kwun Tong)
9. Silence Association (Pak Tin Estate, Shek Kip Mei)

10. Hong Kong Association of the Deaf (Ap Lei Chau Estate, Aberdeen)

The final list of polling stations will be released on March 20.

POP now appeals to different civil organizations, if there are any appropriate places for lent, please contact us as soon as possible. On the day of March 23, POP plans to arrange vehicles as mobile polling stations in areas not covered by the fixed polling stations in order to let citizens vote. Since polling stations are limited, POP encourages citizens to use personal computer or smart phone to vote online that day and let those who do not have access to the internet vote at the fixed and mobile polling stations.

Completion of the design of “3.23 Civil Referendum Project” online voting system for public testing

The design of the online voting system of the “3.23 Civil Referendum Project” has been completed, the public can log onto http://popvote.hk for trial voting starting from 16 March 8pm up till 20 March 8pm, and voters will be allowed to vote once every hour. Results of the trial voting will be erased before “3.21 Mock Civil Referendum Project” kicks off, and it will not be used in the final analysis of the “3.23 Civil Referendum Project”.

iPhone users can start searching “PopVote” in App Store starting from 16 March and download the “PopVote 323” application or use the QR Code below to enter the interface directly.

Project Schedule (tentative)

March 19-20	Holds 3.21 school and 3.23 volunteer briefing sessions
March 20	Pre 3.23 Press Conference: to final confirm the polling stations and overall arrangement
March 21	3.21 Mock Civil Referendum Project: polling stations in primary and secondary schools only
March 22	The Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong releases the integrated results of the 3.21 Mock Civil Referendum Project
March 23	3.23 Civil Referendum Project: results to be announced on the same night
April 23	Financial report to be released

Civic Participation

A lot of citizens and students have expressed their support towards the “3.23 Civil Referendum Project” since its announcement. The present number of volunteers has reached 200 people and there have been enthusiastic citizens willing to provide vehicles for transportation use on that day. POP now calls for interested citizens who are willing to volunteer to sign up as soon as possible. If you cannot participate as volunteer, please help to promote this project by telling your family and friends.

If you would like to support this project, or have other suggestions, please log onto the “Support Us” page on the “PopVote” website (http://popvote.hk) and leave your information. The “Alliance of 3.23 Civil Referendum Support Groups” will follow up promptly.

The difference between “Civil Referendum” and public opinion survey is that the former encourages public active participation in expressing their views, the focus is on civic participation rather than scientific analysis.