Chief executive hopeful Henry Tang Ying-yen is closing the gap in the popularity ratings with his key opponent, although he is still 13 percentage points behind Leung Chun-ying, according to a new survey.
Leung remains the most popular choice to be the city's next leader, with support from 42.9 per cent of 1,022 respondents polled from Monday to Thursday. Tang came second with 29.7 per cent, while Albert Ho Chun-yan trailed in the third place with 9.1 per cent. Another 18.3 per cent expressed no preference.
The poll, conducted by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme, was the first of the five weekly surveys co-commissioned by the South China Morning Post.
An earlier survey conducted from November 28 to December 1 showed Leung's support was almost double Tang's, at 47.3 per cent of 1,012 respondents.
Tang was backed by 23.8 per cent of respondents in that survey while 3.7 per cent opted for Democratic Party chairman Ho.
Tang, the former chief secretary, has cut into Leung's lead in popularity from 23.5 percentage points in the last poll to 13.2 percentage points in the latest survey.