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The Research Team on the Study of Referendums (the Team), formed by a group of voluntary academics, namely Robert Chung, Kenneth Chan, Kin-Man Chan and Wilson Wong, has completed its study on referendums in February this year. The report entitled "Referendums Around the World and Lessons for Hong Kong" has also been released and is now available for public downloading from the HKU POP Site （http://hkupop.hku.hk）.

When the report was released, the Team promised to provide assistance to any organization in experimenting and promoting referendums in Hong Kong. Yet, the team requested the organizing body to take initiative in asking for assistance and to respect the academics' independence.

Shortly afterwards, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) decided to hold a "July 1 mock referendum" in the Victoria Park during the July 1 rally. The organization invited the Research Team on the Study of Referendums to be the advisor. The Team is pleased to give support and three of its members, namely Kenneth Chan, Robert Chung and Wilson Chan, have committed to be responsible for the following tasks:

Preparation Stage

During the preparation stage, these three academics acted in the capacity of advisor to answer questions raised by the referendum team of the CHRF. Yet, the CHRF had the final decision in taking the advice. Due to the limited resources, the Team realized that it is difficult for the CHRF to organize a representative referendum throughout Hong Kong. Therefore, a smaller scale of mock referendum will be held instead to test the feasibility of referendum. The Team members have already recorded the respective observations.

As the referendum is experimental in nature, the advisors suggested that it is not necessary to record the HKID card number of voters. Nonetheless, the CHRF should check whether voters are Hong Kong permanent residents aged 18 or above. The Team suggested that formal mock ballot papers will be given to those who are qualified. If not, reference ballot papers will be given instead with respect to different circumstances. The CHRF has adopted these suggestions.

With regard to the motion, the advisors' advice only touches on the number of motions and the format. The Team has come up with several options. Should it be one combined motion, one ballot paper with two motions, or two papers with two motions? After considerable discussion, the CHRF adopted the last option.

For the detailed operation of the mock referendum, the entire process was mostly organized by the referendum team of the CHRF itself.

During the mock referendum

Members of the Team will be responsible for supervision during the mock referendum. The Team will assign 18 helpers, taking turns to supervise and record the entire voting and counting process in the polling stations. This includes manpower deployment in polling stations, smoothness of procedures, confidentiality of the voting process, any disturbances to voters, etc. Each helper will then fill in a form after their observation for further reference and analysis of the Team.

Besides, those 18 helpers will also take turns to distribute leaflets outside the polling stations, inviting voters to express their opinion on the mock referendum in a specified website. Apart from these, there will be another team of 32 helpers to distribute leaflets along the pathway of the rally. This, again, aims at inviting participants to voice out their opinion online.

Evaluation stage

The Team will write up a report summarizing the experience within 14 days immediately after the event. This report will be based on the observations of the Team, records of the helpers, together with the online opinion of citizens and other research statistics.

In the summary report, the Team will assess the effectiveness of the mock referendum according to the criteria listed in the report entitled "Referendum Around the World and Lessons for Hong Kong". These criteria include role played by the organizing body, clearness of the motions, whether the referendum covers the fundamental principles of democratic election, transparency of the event, etc. Please refer to chapter 6 of the above report for further details.

Conclusion

From the present arrangement of the mock referendum, the Team does not expect a startling result. It is also believed that voters will be rather cooperative. Hence, the Team will focus on observing and examining how the situation will differ if similar event is held in different occasion or the motion is controversial. This is the challenge faced by the Team right now.