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The latest survey conducted in early-February showed that Selina Chow was the most popularly supported non-official Executive Councillor, attaining 57.8 marks. David Li followed behind with 54.7 marks. Cheng Yiu-tong occupied the 3rd rank, with 51.8 marks correspondingly. Jasper Tsang and Leung Chun-ying ranked 4th to 5th, scoring 47.6 and 47.5marks respectively. The mean score obtained by these top 5 non-official Executive Councillors was 51.9 marks.
Commentary
Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, observed, 「Among the five most well-known non-official Executive Councillors, only David Li is newly appointed. Two out of the five, including convenor Leung Chun-ying, have support ratings below 50 marks, indicating that most non-official councilors are still on the lower side of the popularity scale. This phenomenon has not changed much after Donald Tsang revamped the Executive Council last October. It should be noted that our "Top 5" list includes only those who are best known to the public, ranked according to their support ratings. Some of the other 10 non-official members may well have very high or low support ratings, but because they are not the most well-known councillors, they do not appear in our "Top 5" list by design.」
The research design of our "Top 5 Executive Councillors" is the same as that of our "Top 10 Legislative Councillors" which has been explained in detail under "Survey Method" in our corresponding web pages. 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 mid-January (January 16-20). Our normal procedure is to enter 6 names into the second round, we increased the quota to 7 this time because there was a tie for the 6th place. In that survey, respondents could name, unaided, up to 5 non-official Executive Councillors whom they knew best. Jasper Tsang, Leung Chun-ying, Selina Chow, Anthony Cheung, Bernard C Chan, David Li and Cheng Yiu-tong were mentioned most frequently. Please refer to the relevant table in our website for the rest of the list. Those 7 who were named most frequently then entered into the second stage rating survey. During the second stage rating survey conducted in early-February, respondents were asked to rate each councillor 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 councillors in terms of recognition rate were dropped; the remaining 5 were then ranked according to their support ratings attained to become the top 5 non-official Executive Councillors. For this latest survey, Bernard C Chan and Anthony Cheung obtained support ratings of 55.4 and 53.9 marks respectively, but they were dropped due to their relatively low recognition rates.
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. According to schedule, our next release of regular survey findings will be February 16, 2006, Thursday, between 1pm to 2pm, when the latest findings on people's trust in the HKSAR and Beijing Central Governments, their confidence in Hong Kong's future, China's future and "one country, two systems" will be released. Then, on February 21, 2006, Tuesday, between 1pm to 2 pm, the rating of the top 10 political groups 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 this year, 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 start 「top 5」 instead of individual ratings for all Exco members?
A: Since July 2003, POP has been measuring the popularity ratings of all individual Exco members, including the official members, non-official members, and two sit-in members, namely, the Head of Central Policy Unit and the Director of Chief Executive's Office. At one time before the last revamp in October 2005, a total of 22 members were rated individually. Last October, CE Donald Tsang further increased the number of non-official members by 8. POP therefore made parallel changes by introducing the 「top 5」 exercise, in additional to the regular individual rating of all 14 principal officials, in order to save resources.
Q: Why compile 「top 5」 instead of 「top 10」 non-official Exco member rankings?
A: Experience shows that most non-official Exco members have low recognition rates. Using 「top 5」 should be enough to register the popularity of the most well-known members. 「Top 10」 could be a waste.
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