Public disapproval of Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is at its highest since he took office, a survey by the University of Hong Kong's public opinion programme shows.
In a random telephone survey from April 7 to 12, 49 per cent of 1,009 respondents said they would not vote for Tsang if an election were held now and they had the right to vote. The figure is up three percentage points from a similar poll two weeks earlier. Only 34 per cent said they would vote for Tsang, four percentage points down from the previous survey.
The survey was done before the government released its revised proposals for electoral reform in 2012.
Asked to rate their support for Tsang on a scale from zero to 100, interviewees gave him an average mark of 50.7, a decline of 1.8 points from the previous survey and his lowest score since November. His rating peaked at 72.3 when he took office in June 2005.
The popularity of Tsang's cabinet members also dropped. Chief Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen had a support rating of 52.5 - down 1.9 marks from the previous poll and the lowest since he took up the post in July 2007. Forty-two per cent said they would vote for him to be chief secretary assuming they could, while 18 per cent said they would not.
The rating for Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah fell by 2.9 marks, to 54.5, while that for Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung dropped 1.3 marks, to 59.9, in the latest poll.