HKU POP SITE releases the latest ratings of the Top 10 Legislative CouncillorsBack

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 the top 10 Legislative Councillors. To facilitate better understanding of our "Top 10" series, while the research method has remained the same, we have also included the following two pieces of supplementary information: (1) The ratings of Legislative Councillors dropped in the final stage of the rating exercise due to their relatively low recognition rates, provided that they still attain 50% recognition rate; (2) Overall ratings ranked according to results obtained over an extended period of time, which is set at past 12 calendar months for surveys on "Top 10 Legislative Councillors". The following table shows the findings of the latest survey. As a general practice, our figures have been weighted according to the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population obtained from the 2001 Population Census.

* "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 recognition rates not reaching top 10 in either stage of survey are not available.
[ ] Number in square brackets indicates rankings.

The latest survey conducted in early November showed that Rita Fan was the most popularly supported councillor attaining 65.1 marks. Audrey Eu followed behind with 61.8 marks. Selina Chow, James Tien and Lee Cheuk-yan occupied the 3rd to 5th ranks, with 57.5, 55.5 and 54.5 marks correspondingly. Martin Lee, Jasper Tsang and Emily Lau ranked 6th to 8th, scoring 51.0, 49.7 and 48.9 marks respectively. The subsequent ranks fell to Albert Cheng and Leung Kwok-hung who scored 46.4 and 35.1 marks. The mean score obtained by the top 5 councillors was 58.9 marks, while that for the top 10 was 52.5 marks. The overall ratings ranked according to results obtained over the past 12 calendar months are tabulated as follows:

The overall rankings in the past 12 months showed that nine Legislative Councillors have been on the list for four times. They are Rita Fan in the top rank achieving an average rating of 63.4 marks, Selina Chow ranking 2nd attaining 58.7 marks, James Tien and Lee Cheuk-yan who ranked 3rd and 4th with respective scores of 54.3 and 54.0 marks, Martin Lee, Emily Lau and Jasper Tsang at the 5th to 7th ranks, attaining 50.7, 49.3 and 48.3 marks correspondingly, Albert Cheng and Leung Kwok-hung ranking 8th and 9th with 43.7 and 34.2 marks respectively. Audrey Eu and Lee Wing-tat were listed for three times and one time respectively, they occupied the 10th and 11th ranks.

The research design of our "Top 10 Legislative Councillors" has been explained in detail under "Survey Method" in our corresponding web page. The top councillors listed in our latest survey were all those who obtained the highest unprompted mentions in our first stage naming survey conducted in late October (October 25-29). In that survey, respondents could name, unaided, up to 10 legislators whom they knew best. Martin Lee, Leung Kwok-hung, Emily Lau, Selina Chow and Lee Wing-tat were mentioned most frequently. Please refer to the relevant table for the rest of the list. Those 12 who were named most frequently then entered into the second stage rating survey. During the second stage rating survey conducted in early November, respondents were asked to rate each legislator in turn using a 0-100 scale. 0 indicates absolutely no support, 100 indicates absolute support, and 50 means half-half. After calculation, the bottom 2 legislators in terms of recognition rate were dropped; the remaining 10 were then ranked according to their support ratings attained to become the top 10 Legislative Councillors. For this latest survey, Lee Wing-tat and Ma Lik obtained support ratings of 51.0 and 50.3 marks respectively, but they were dropped due to their relatively low recognition rates. For easy reference, the POP Site has already displayed the results of all naming surveys conducted since the year 1998.

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 November 22, 2005, Tuesday, at 2 pm, the latest figures of people's appraisal of the local news media 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.