HKU POP SITE releases the latest popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and HKSAR GovernmentBack

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 popularity figures of CE Donald Tsang and the HKSAR Government. As a general practice, all figures have been weighted according to the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population obtained from the 2001 Population Census. Recent popularity figures of Donald Tsang are first 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.
^ Donald Tsang was the Acting CE during the survey period.

The latest survey conducted in late July showed that, CE Donald Tsang scored 69.0 marks, and 72% supported him as the Chief Executive. Recent figures on people's appraisal of the performance of the HKSAR Government are tabulated 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 a 5-point scale.
^ Note the difference in polling cycles, changes according to a 3-month cycle would be +13% and -6% respectively.

Regarding people's appraisal of the overall performance of the HKSAR Government, the latest figures revealed that 44% were satisfied, whereas 15% were dissatisfied. Of the 5 specific indicators, people were most satisfied with the government's handling of its relation with the Central Government, with a satisfaction percentage of 57%. The government's performance in maintaining economic prosperity and protecting human rights followed, attaining satisfaction percentages of 44% and 41% respectively. Meanwhile, a respective of 33% and 30% of the respondents were satisfied with the government's performance in developing democracy and improving people's livelihood.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Both the popularity rating and support rate of Donald Tsang have dropped, giving an important signal to the government. In between the two latest surveys, RTHK stopped its horseracing radio programme, Tsang was accused of intervening an application by New World Development for turning a car park into a showroom for selling vehicles two years ago, and the government was criticized for reacting too slowly in banning the import of pork from Sichuan. All these could have contributed to Tsang's popularity drop. The overall popularity of the government, however, is still on the rise. Satisfaction rate has increased by 4 percentage points over the last month, 13 percentage points over the last quarter, and 24 percentage points counting from the resignation of Tung Chee-Hwa. In other words, the government's popularity has basically recovered to that shortly after the handover, but the fact that CE's popularity has dropped is a sign that honeymoon is over. What happens next will depend very much on the government's actual policies."

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 August 4, 2005, Thursday, at 2 pm, the latest figures of people's satisfaction with the performances of the Legislative Council members in general, the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong garrison and the Hong Kong Police Force will be released. Then, on August 9, 2005, Tuesday, at 2 pm, we will release the latest figures on the popularity of CE Donald Tsang and Principal Officials under the accountability system.

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.