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 April 28, 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). As a general practice, all figures have been weighted according to the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population obtained from the Population Census. Recent figures are summarized as follows:

 
 Date of survey 26-29/7/04 18-21/10/04 24-25/1/05 18-21/4/05 Latest change
 Sample base 1,005 1,011 1,003 1,012 --
 Overall response rate 60.6% 63.3% 65.0% 66.7% --
 Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% +/- 3% --
 Satisfaction rate of overall performance of Legco members** 16% 24% 14% 18% +4%
 Dissatisfaction rate of overall performance of Legco members** 35% 25% 50% 37% -13%
 Satisfaction rate of HKPF** 71% 79% 78% 78% --
 Dissatisfaction rate of HKPF** 7% 5% 5% 5% --
 Satisfaction rate of PLA** 60% 71% 62% 58% -4%
 Dissatisfaction rate of PLA** 3% 2% 3% 3% --

* "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 mid-April revealed that 37% of the respondents were dissatisfied with the overall performance of the Legco members, and 18% were satisfied. As for the performance of the HKPF, 78% were satisfied while 5% were dissatisfied. Besides, 58% were satisfied with the performance of the PLA stationed in Hong Kong, whereas only 3% were dissatisfied.

 

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Riding on the upward trend of government popularity, people's dissatisfaction with Legco members has dropped 13 percentage points over the past 3 months. It is, however, still 19 percentage points above people's satisfaction rate. In terms of popularity, we now have a strong judiciary but a weak executive, and an even weaker legislature, not a very stable balance. It should be noted that the overall performance of Legco members includes those returned by geographical as well as functional constituencies, it is not a measurement of individual Legco members. As for the two disciplinary forces covered in this survey, the Hong Kong Police Force continued to enjoy high public support, while the popularity of the PLA Hong Kong garrison has dropped a bit."

 

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 May 3, 2005, Tuesday, at 2pm, the latest figures on subjective social and legal indicators 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.