HKU POP SITE releases the latest ratings of CE Tung Chee-hwa and the Principal Officials under the accountability systemBack

The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest ratings of CE Tung Chee-hwa and the Principal Officials under the accountability system. POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to this schedule, the date and time of our next release will be May 20, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest popularity ratings of the top 10 Legislative Councillors will be released.

Between May 2 and 7, 2003, POP conducted a random telephone survey which successfully interviewed 1,008 Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. Results showed that the latest rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa was 41.2 marks, representing a significant increase of 1.7 marks from that of mid-April. Meanwhile, the latest ratings of CS Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and FS Antony Leung Kam-chung were 62.3 and 43.1 marks, indicating significant rises of 3.7 and 2.7 marks from those of early April respectively. On the other hand, the popularity rating of SJ Elsie Leung Oi-sie was 47.3 marks, no significant change was registered.

With respect to the popularity ranking of Directors of Bureaux, the latest findings obtained in early May revealed that the most popular official remained to be Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung, attaining 61.5 marks, and leading with quite a wide margin from the rest. Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan and Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung ranked 2nd and 3rd, with popularity ratings of 55.2 and 55.0 marks respectively. Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Henry Tang Ying-yen, Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung ranked from 4th to 6th, attaining 53.3, 52.9 and 52.4 marks correspondingly. The 7th to the 9th ranks fell to Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong and Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping, with popularity ratings of 50.9, 50.4 and 50.3 marks correspondingly. Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang ranked 10th and 11th, attaining 46.4 and 44.2 marks respectively.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "As the outbreak of SARS is contained, CE Tung Chee-hwa's rating has climbed back to the level of 40s. This is still a very low score, in spite of the alleviation. At the other front, FS Antony Leung's rating has also bounced back to 43.1 marks after hitting its record low, while Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-han's rating has also gone up to 44.2 marks. Last month, Ma and Tung shared the second-last position, but now, Tung is behind all Secretaries of Departments and Directors of Bureax under the accountability system for the first time. The popularity rating of Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong, the Principal Official responsible for handling SARS, dropped by 1.4 marks, while the rating of Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li, who was responsible for re-opening classes, rose by 1.8 marks."

The new poll released in the POP Site today is a random telephone survey conducted by interviewers, targeting at Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. The sample size of the survey is 1,008 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling errors of the latest ratings of CE, CS, FS and SJ are plus/minus 1.4, 1.0, 1.4 and 1.4 marks correspondingly, while those of the ratings of Directors of Bureaux are less than plus/minus 1.4 marks. The meaning of "95% confidence level" is that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.