HKU POP SITE releases the latest results on people's appraisal of 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 results on people's appraisal of Principal Officials under the accountability system. Our 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 July 2, 2002, Tuesday, at 2 pm; the latest findings on people's trust in the HKSAR and Beijing Central Governments, and their confidence in "one country, two systems" will be released.

In order to capture people's initial appraisal of Principal Officials under the accountability system appointed by CE Tung Chee-hwa on Monday, POP has conducted a three-day poll soon after Tung's announcement. Results showed that, of the 14 Principal Officials appointed, the top three candidates who received the highest level of endorsement from the public were Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and Financial Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung, for which 79%, 75% and 62% of the respondents thought they were ideal candidates for the appointed postings respectively. Secretary for Economic Development and Labour (Designate) Stephen Ip Shu-kwan, Secretary for Education and Manpower (Designate) Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Designate) Michael Suen Ming-yeung, Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping and Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food (Designate) Yeoh Eng-kiong ranked fourth to eighth. The corresponding figures for these officials were 52%, 46%, 45%, 45% and 41% respectively. Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie and Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (Designate) Henry Tang Ying-yen came next, with corresponding figures 39% and 38% respectively. The eleventh to the fourteenth ranks fell to Secretary for Constitutional Affairs (Designate) Stephen Lam Sui-lung, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (Designate) Frederick Ma Si-hang, Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works (Designate) Sarah Liao Sau-tung and Secretary for Home Affairs (Designate) Patrick Ho Chi-ping correspondingly. It is noteworthy that as some of these officials were quite new to the general public, more than 45% of the respondents claimed total ignorance of Sarah Liao Sau-tung, Frederick Ma Si-hang and also Patrick Ho Chi-ping.

On the other hand, as regards the appointments of Leung Chun-ying, James Tien Pei-chun, Tsang Yok-sing, Cheng Yiu-tong and Andrew Liao Cheung-sing as non-official members of the new Executive Council, 50% of the respondents thought they were ideal candidates, while 22% did not.

On the other hand, as regards the appointments of Leung Chun-ying, James Tien Pei-chun, Tsang Yok-sing, Cheng Yiu-tong and Andrew Liao Cheung-sing as non-official members of the new Executive Council, 50% of the respondents thought they were ideal candidates, while 22% did not.

The new survey reported 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 over 1,000 respondents. At 95% confidence level, the sampling error of all percentages is less than plus/minus 3 percentage points. That means 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 comment on the findings at this stage. Such an arrangement would be reviewed when more resources are available. Please note that Dr CHUNG Ting-yiu Robert, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is solely responsible for the work published in the POP Site, which does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong.