Leung Chun-ying maintained his lead over arch-rival Henry Tang Ying-yen in public support for his chief executive bid by a wide margin after an instant poll showed 43.2 per cent saying he was the best performer in last night's televised debate.
The former chief secretary attacked Leung's integrity but failed to impress the audience, with only 13.4 per cent saying Tang performed best in the two-hour debate.
And his aggressive tactics left him in hot water amid suggestions that he had breached official confidentiality in one of his attacks on Leung, during which he accused the former Executive Council convenor of lying.
Tang rated lower even than pan-democratic candidate Albert Ho Chun-yan, who has no realistic hope of being elected in what critics call a 'small-circle election'. Ho was backed by 23.2 per cent.
The poll - conducted by the University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme and co-commissioned by the South China Morning Post - also found 41.8 per cent of 591 respondents interviewed said they would choose Leung as the chief executive if they had a vote, compared to 24 per cent for Tang and backing of 10.2 per cent for Ho.
The debate came just over a week before the March 25 vote in which the city's next leader will be chosen by 1,193 Election Committee members.
It was the only televised debate allowing candidates to question one another. And the crossfire soon started flying as Tang attacked Leung's integrity, claiming he had proposed to shorten the licence renewal term for Commercial Radio in 2003 in an attempt to suppress free speech.