HKU POP SITE releases the latest ratings of Principal Officials under the accountability system and rating of CE Tung Chee-hwaBack

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 Principal Officials under the accountability system and that of CE Tung Chee-hwa. As Tung Chee-hwa has just completed his first five-year term, we have uploaded in our "Archive" Section a comparison between the ratings of Former Governor Chris Patten in his five-year term and that of CE Tung Chee-hwa in his first term, for readers' easy reference.

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 our schedule, the date and time of our next release will be July 9, 2002, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest figures on people's opinions towards the independence of Taiwan and cross-strait reunification, as well as people's confidence in Hong Kong's and China's future will be released.

According to the survey findings released today, the ratings of CE Tung Chee-hwa, CS Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and FS Antony Leung Kam-chung increased significantly after Tung announced the appointment of Principal Officials under the accountability system. Tung's rating registered in late June (June 24-26) was 52.8, an increase of 2.1 marks from that of mid-June, while those of Donald Tsang and Antony Leung were 67.7 marks and 61.2 marks, representing increases of 4.1 and 2.9 marks respectively. On the other hand, the popularity rating of SJ Elsie Leung Oi-sie was 49.2 marks, a slight decrease of 0.5 marks from that of mid-June. Although the drop was statistically insignificant, Leung had apparently not benefited from the announcement.

As regards the popularity ranking of Directors of Bureaux, the top three were Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan and Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, attaining 65.9 marks, 62.6 marks and 62.4 marks respectively. Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong and Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping ranked fourth and fifth, with popularity ratings of 59.9 marks and 58.5 marks respectively. Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung and Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Henry Tang Ying-yen came next, attaining 56.7 marks and 56.4 marks respectively. Since the remaining directors failed to reach the 50% benchmark recognition rate, their ratings are not taken as representative according to POP's long established practice. They are listed separately in our summary tables. POP will continue to monitor people's ratings of Principal Officials under the accountability system through our tracking polls so as to keep track of their support towards these officials.

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 errors of the ratings of CE, CS, FS and SJ are plus/minus 1.4 marks, 1.2marks, 1.2 marks and 1.6 marks respectively, while that of the ratings of Directors of Bureaux is less than plus/minus 2.0 marks. 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.