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Results of our survey conducted in late-January revealed that the latest rating of CE Donald Tsang was 67.0 marks. Meanwhile, 67% of the respondents supported Tsang as the Chief Executive, whereas 12% did not. Regarding people's appraisal of the overall performance of the HKSAR Government, the latest figures revealed that 50% were satisfied, whereas 11% were dissatisfied.
Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, "Having rebounded in early January, the popularity of CE Donald Tsang both in terms of rating and support rate have dropped back a little, somewhat naturally, in the middle of the month. People's satisfaction with the SAR government, on the other hand, has remained very stable over the past three months. Whether the reshuffle of Donald Tsang's cabinet announced today would affect the popularity of the government is something worth observing. According to our records, the popularity rating of Lam Woon-kwong before he resigned from the Director of the CE Office was 52.4, and the latest popularity rating of John Tsang before he became the Director of the CE Office was 60.1, which means there could be a net gain in the popularity of Tsang's cabinet."
News about POP
POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday afternoon via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the next 7 days. However, since next Tuesday is Chinese New Year holiday, we will defer our release to a week later, which means that our next release of regular survey findings will be on February 7, 2006, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2pm, when the latest rating of Top Ten Legislative Councillors will be released.
Our general practice is to answer all questions on the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site as soon as we receive them, but we will not further comment on the findings. We welcome questions for follow-up purpose, please email them to us at <[email protected]>. 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 POP, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors.
Starting from this month, we have included a small educational section in our regular press release for the purpose of general civic education, the content of which was based on previous questions and comments we have received from the public. The subject of our education section today is still "FAQs of Opinion Research".
Some FAQs of Opinion Research
Q: Why does POP measure CE's popularity twice a month?
A: In advanced democratic countries, the popularity of their supreme leaders is the crux of all opinion pollings. We see it as our responsibility to measure and release the popularity of our top leader, may it be the Governor or the Chief Executive, as frequently as we could, under our limited resources.
Q: Is there an ideal frequency for opinion polling?
A: It depends on how opinion fluctuates on specific items, and how serious we take those fluctuations. For example, during elections, rolling polls are often conducted by internationally renowned organizations to measure fluctuations on a daily basis. POP now measures CE's popularity once every two weeks, the popularity of the government once every month, and some items once every year.
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