HKU POP SITE releases the latest figures on the popularity of the Principal Officials under the accountability system and other supperlementary figuresBack

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 figures on the popularity of the Principal Officials under the accountability system. Because the accountability system has been put into force for over a year, and there are recently some movements in the Executive Council, therefore, this release is incorporated with the figures regarding the changes of the popularity of the various members of the Executive Council before and after such movements. Besides, after the appointments of Henry Tang Ying-yen, Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong and John Tsang Chun-wah, POP has released some time ago the changes in public opinion regarding the popularity of CE and the relevant officials after such appointments. Changes in the popularity of other officials are also released and tabulated in detail this time. Changes in the support ratings are summarized as follows:

* "95% confidence level" means 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
** Ratings with less than 50% recognition rates are not taken as representative
^ Erratum : The rating of CE Tung should be 35.0 instead of 38.1 marks as reported in the original release (the latter is the last rating of Tung extracted from the survey of 14-16 July).

The collapsed findings obtained between August 1 and 5 revealed that, people's ratings of all principal officials have significantly increased from those of early July. With respect to the three Secretaries, the rating of CS Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was 62.5 marks, while the new FS Henry Tang Ying-yen and SJ Elsie Leung Oi-sie scored 56.5 and 49.1 marks respectively. As for the popularity ranking of Directors of Bureaux, the most popular official remained to be Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung, attaining 60.1 marks, and leading with quite a wide margin from the rest. Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip Shu-kwan, and Secretary for Education and Manpower Arthur Li Kwok-cheung ranked 2nd and 3rd, with popularity ratings of 54.5 and 53.8 marks respectively. Secretary for Home Affairs Patrick Ho Chi-ping, Secretary for the Civil Service Joseph Wong Wing-ping, and Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung ranked from 4th to 6th, attaining 51.1, 50.4 and 50.2 marks correspondingly. The 7th to 9th ranks fell to Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food Yeoh Eng-kiong, and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Frederick Ma Si-hang, with popularity ratings of 44.0, 43.2 and 42.0 marks correspondingly.

Regarding people's ratings of the non-official members of the Executive Council, Leung Chun-ying scored 44.7 marks, Jasper Tsang 43.4 marks, and Cheng Yiu-tong 40.5 marks, while that of Liao Cheung-sing was not taken as representative because of his less-than-50% recognition rate. As for the sit-in members, the popularity ratings of the Director of CE's Office Lam Woon-kwong and the Head of Central Policy Unit Lau Siu-kai were 51.4 and 48.7 marks respectively.

Meanwhile, the rating of CE Tung Chee-hwa was 43.0 marks, and the proportions of respondents who would and would not vote for him as the CE were 18% and 64% correspondingly. With respect to people's approval rates of his job performance, by use of a 5-pt scale, 13% of the respondents interviewed thought Tung was doing a good job as the CE, as contrast to 53% who held the opposite view. The approval rates of other officials are as follows**:

* "95% confidence level" means 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
** Collapsed from 5-point scales
*** James Tien not to be included in/ after the August survey
[ ] Disapproval rate

Results showed that, 53% of the respondents thought Donald Tsang was doing a good job, while 34% said Elsie Leung was doing a bad job. As for the approval rates of Directors of Bureaux, 50% of the respondents thought that Sarah Liao was doing a good job, 30% approved Henry Tang's job performance, followed by Stephen Ip, Arthur Li, Patrick Ho, Michael Suen, Yeoh Eng-kiong, Joseph Wong, Stephen Lam and Frederick Ma in respective order. Besides, only 11% of the respondents believed that the non-official members of the Executive Council were doing a good job as a whole.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, made the following analysis: "Over the month past, the popularity ratings of C.H. Tung and the principal officials have all rebounded 5 to 6 marks, more or less equal to a jump of one grade. Putting aside the newly appointed Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee, and the Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology John Tsang, only 4 out of the remaining 12 principal officials now have popularity ratings below 50 marks. This is a sign that the government is about to walk out of the recent governance crisis. However, Frederick Ma, C.H. Tung, Yeoh Eng-kiong, Stephen Lam, and many non-official Executive Council members still have popularity ratings below 45 marks, which should not be taken lightly."

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 August 19, 2003, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest popularity ratings of the top 10 Legislative Councillors, as well as the latest results of people's satisfaction with the freedom of the press in Hong Kong and their appraisal of the credibility of the local news media in general will be released.

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.