HKU POP SITE releases figures of people's satisfaction with the performance of the Legislative Council members in general, the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong garrison and the Hong Kong Police ForceBack


Press Release on February 3, 2005
 

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 of people's satisfaction with the performance of the Legislative Council members in general, the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong garrison (PLA) and the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF). Recent figures are summarized as follows:

 
 Date of survey 19-22/4/04 26-29/7/04 18-21/10/04 24-25/1/05 Latest Change
 Sample base 1,029 1,005 1,011 1,003 --
 Overall response rate 61.1% 60.6% 63.3% 65.0% --
 Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% --
 Satisfaction rate of overall performance of Legco members** 15% 16% 24% 14% -10%
 Dissatisfaction rate of overall performance of Legco members** 39% 35% 25% 50% +25%
 Satisfaction rate of PLA** 56% 60% 71% 62% -9%
 Dissatisfaction rate of PLA** 5% 3% 2% 3% +1%
 Satisfaction rate of HKPF** 64% 71% 79% 78% -1%
 Dissatisfaction rate of HKPF** 12% 7% 5% 5% --

* "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 a 5-point scale.

 

Results of survey conducted in late January revealed that 50% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the overall performance of the Legco members, while 14% were satisfied. Besides, 62% were satisfied with the performance of the PLA stationed in Hong Kong, while only 3% were dissatisfied. As for the performance of the HKPF, 78% were satisfied and 5% were dissatisfied.

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "People's dissatisfaction with Legco members has shot up over the past 3 months, their satisfaction rate now stands at 14%, obviously due to the unprecedented abortion of meeting last month. If Legco cannot recover from this popularity setback, the checks and balances among the executive, the legislature and the judiciary would topple, at least from people's standpoint. It should be noted that in this survey, 'Legco members' refers on the whole to members returned by geographical as well as functional constituencies. The popularity rating of individual Legco members will be released under our 'Top 10 Legislative Councillors' survey series. As for the two disciplinary forces covered in our survey, the Hong Kong Police Force continued to maintain its high satisfaction rate, while that of the PLA Hong Kong garrison has dropped back to that of July last year."

 

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. The date and time of our next release of regular survey findings will be February 8, 2005, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest popularity figures of CE Tung Chee-hwa and the findings of a Policy Address follow-up survey 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.