Beijing's decision to rule out early universal suffrage has damaged the popularity ratings of politicians and officials taking a strong position on the ruling - irrespective of which side they are on - according to a survey. The Hong Kong University poll of 1,013 respondents on Friday found support for Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and his officials dropped to the lowest levels in recent months. But support for leading pro-democracy legislators - such as Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, Lee Cheuk-yan and Martin Lee Chu-ming - also fell from the last survey taken in early April. Ms Eu remained the most popular legislator, but her popularity rating plunged by 8.2 points to 58 on the 100-point scale. Support for Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, who heads the constitutional reform taskforce, dropped 4.5 points to 56.6. Mr Tsang's score was only slightly above the approval rating he recorded after the July 1 mass demonstration last year. Mr Tung's support dipped by 1.5 points to 42.7. It was Mr Tung's lowest rating since December, when his popularity rating was 42.6. The director of the university's public opinion programme, Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, said the survey result - combined with other recent findings on public trust and confidence - showed all sides in the political reform debate had entered an 'all-lose scenario'. 'It shows that the popularities of the chief executive, the principal officers and Legco members have all dropped,' he said.
