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 February 18, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest popularity ratings of the top 10 Legislative Councillors will be released.

Between February 4 and 7, 2003, POP conducted a random telephone survey which successfully interviewed 1,020 Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong of age 18 or above. Results showed that the latest rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa was 45.6 marks, which was almost the same as that registered in late January (January 23-28). The latest ratings of CS Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and FS Antony Leung Kam-chung were 57.2 and 50.8 marks, indicating respective drops of 2.2 and 1.9 marks from those of early January. Meanwhile, the popularity rating of SJ Elsie Leung Oi-sie was 45.6 marks, a decrease of 1.1 marks, which was not statistically significant. The popularity ratings of all 3 Secretaries were at their record lows since POP started to monitor them.

With respect to the popularity ranking of Directors of Bureaux, because it is POP's long established practice not to treat ratings of persons with less than 50% benchmark recognition rate as representative, therefore, among the 11 Directors of Bureaux, the rating of Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung is not taken as representative in this survey, and has been listed separately in our summary tables. According to our latest results obtained in early February, the most popular official remained to be Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung, attaining 61.1 marks, and leading with quite a wide margin from the rest. Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong and Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan ranked 2nd and 3rd, with popularity ratings of 54.8 and 54.2 marks respectively. Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology Henry Tang Ying-yen and Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung ranked 4th and 5th, attaining 52.2 and 51.9 marks correspondingly. Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung and Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping shared the 6th rank, each attaining 50.4 marks. Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang ranked 9th and 10th respectively, with popularity ratings of 50.0 and 42.4 marks correspondingly.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed: "While CE Tung Chee-hwa's rating has been fluctuating at a low level of 45 marks in the month past, those of the 3 Secretaries have hit their record lows. This shows that people's dissatisfaction with the government's core leadership has spread from the CE to the Secretaries. On the other hand, the popularity of the 11 Directors of Bureaux as a whole has remained rather stable over the month past, as the popularity of 5 of them advanced, 5 receded, and the remaining one became obscured. It thus seems that the Directors are still by and large unaffected. The popularity of the government in the near future will depend very much on whether the leading officials could grasp the public mood in dealing with the Budget and the legislation of Basic Law Article 23".

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 1,020 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 correspondingly, while those of the ratings of Directors of Bureaux with recognition rates reaching 50% 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.