HKU POP SITE releases the latest ratings of CE Tung Chee-hwa and 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 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 November 19, 2002, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest popularity ratings of the top ten Legislative Councillors will be released.

According to the latest figures released today, CE Tung Chee-hwa's rating has dropped for the first time after increasing for four consecutive times since mid-August. The figure registered in early November (November 1-5) was 47.1 marks, representing a decrease of 2.1 marks when compared with that of mid-October, which was statistically significant.

As for the popularity ratings for the three Secretaries, the rating of CS Donald Tsang Yam-kuen registered in early November was 60.1 marks, a decrease of 2.1 marks when compared with that of early October, which was statistically significant and also a record low since his taking up the position as CS last May. Meanwhile, the latest popularity rating of FS Antony Leung Kam-chung was 51.8 marks, representing a significant drop of 2.1 marks when compared with that of early October, which was also a record low. The rating of Leung has dropped for five consecutive times since late June, with an accumulative drop of 9.4 marks. As regards the rating of Elsie Leung Oi-sie, the latest figure registered was 47.4 marks, representing a drop of 3.0 marks when compared with that registered in early October, which was statistically significant.

Regarding the popularity ranking of Directors of Bureaux, the latest results showed that the most popular official was Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung, attaining 60.7 marks, leading with quite a wide margin from the rest. Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan ranked second and third, with popularity ratings of 55.4 and 54.6 marks respectively. Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung and Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong ranked fourth and fifth, attaining 53.9 and 53.7 marks respectively. Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Henry Tang Ying-yen, Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping, Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung, and Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping ranked from sixth to ninth, with popularity ratings of 52.6, 51.9, 51.9 and 50.8 marks correspondingly. The last two ranks went to Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang, attaining 47.9 and 41.1 marks respectively. Ratings of the eleven Directors of Bureaux obtained in this survey could be treated as representative, since all of the Directors' recognition rates passed the 50% benchmark.

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, 1.0, 1.2 and 1.4 marks respectively, while those of the ratings of Directors of Bureaux are less than plus/minus 1.6 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.