HKU POP SITE releases the results of people's appraisal of the performance of the Principal Officials under the accountability system and a column article Back

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 findings of a series of questions on people's appraisal of the performance of the Principal Officials under the accountability system for the first time, and a bilingual article written by Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of the Public Opinion Programme, entitled "Accountability of Principal Officials to Public Opinion". The article mainly discussed the methodologies for measuring the popularity of the Principal Officials, and analyzed the latest findings. Copyright of the article is open, and the media is welcome to carry it in whole or in part.

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 June 24, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa, people's satisfaction with his policy direction, their appraisal of the performance of the HKSAR Government in general, their trust in the HKSAR and Beijing Central Governments, as well as their confidence in Hong Kong's future, China's future and "one country, two systems" will be released.

Between June 3 and 6, 2003, POP conducted a random telephone survey which successfully interviewed 1,027 Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. Results showed that 54% of the respondents thought that Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was doing a good job as the Chief Secretary, an increase of 11 percentage points from that of early April. On the other hand, if people had the right to vote on the reappointment or dismissal of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen as the Chief Secretary, 71% would vote for reappointment, representing a significant increase of 10 percentage points from that of early March.

Regarding people's appraisal of Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, the latest findings revealed that 54% of the respondents thought he was doing a bad job, more or less the same as that of early April. As for hypothetical voting, the proportion of respondents who would vote for the dismissal of Leung has risen by 11 percentage points from that of mid-March to 46%. As for the Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie, 30% of the respondents said she was doing a bad job, 20% thought she was doing a good job, 35% said "half-half". On hypothetical voting, 30% would vote for Elsie Leung's reappointment, 27% would vote for dismissal, which was a significant drop of 15 percentage points from that of early March.

As for the approval rates of Directors of Bureaux, the latest findings of early June revealed that 45% of the respondents thought that Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung was doing a good job, followed by Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee's 41%, and then Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung's 35%. The remaining rankings went to Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Henry Tang Ying-yen, Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan, Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong, Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung, Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung, and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang.

Besides, hypothetical voting results indicated that 59% would vote for the reappointment of Sarah Liao, and 52% for Arthur Li. The remaining Directors of Bureaux all scored less than 50%.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, pointed out in his column article, "should public opinion still be considered important, even for a system of reappointment or dismissal without the mandate of the people, the most straightforward answer is to monitor the popularity of the Principal Officials constantly and openly, by means of a variety of opinion indicators." The article explained, "we could somewhat conceptually divide the Principal Officials into 3 classes and 6 grades, according to the results of "hypothetical voting". One class of Officials would be those with "reappointment rate" exceeding 50%, another class would be those with "dismissal rate" exceeding 50%, while the remaining class would be those with both rates not exceeding 50%. As for the 6 grades, further consideration would be given to the direction of "voting results", and whether the watershed of 67% (two-thirds majority) is reached."

All new polls released in the POP Site today are random telephone surveys conducted by interviewers, targeting at Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. The sample size of the latest survey is 1,027 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling error of all percentages is less than plus/minus 3 percentage points. 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.