Leung Chun-ying to survive confidence vote but poll rating dips again

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is likely to win a confidence vote today despite seeing his overall popularity rating stay below 50 points for the seventh consecutive month.

A University of Hong Kong poll conducted earlier this month put his latest rating at 48.1 points, 1.3 points lower than the rating the same source gave him in September.

Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki, who filed the motion, said its backers did not expect to win the vote despite the fact that the city had been "torn apart" since Leung took office.

Only 31 per cent of the 1,009 participants in the HKU poll said they supported Leung as the city's leader, while 55 per cent disapproved of him - an increase of 6 percentage points from last month's poll.

Health chief Dr Ko Wing-man remained the most popular minister, with 77 per cent support. Among the three principal officials, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor enjoyed the highest overall rating at 62 points, a slight drop of 1.2 points from September.

Education minister Eddie Ng Hak-kim fared less well with just 19 per cent support - a drop of 6 percentage points.

Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po joined him in the city's bad books with 15 per cent of those polled supporting him.

The margin of error for the poll was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Lawmakers will vote on the no-confidence motion a day before Leung attends a Legislative Council question-andanswer session.

Kwok said Leung had failed to fulfil his promises on universal suffrage and livelihood issues.

"Social tension has intensified, as we can see between police and protesters, and Hongkongers and mainlanders," he said. "We do not anticipate the vote will be in our favour. But in any democratic country, a motion of no confidence is an indication that society faces big trouble."

Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said Leung had failed to live up to people's expectations on even the most trivial matters.

A similar motion tabled in December last year was defeated after it failed to win support from pro-Beijing lawmakers. Of the non-democrat members only independent lawmakers Paul Tse Wai-chun and Lam Tai-fai voted for the motion. The Liberal Party abstained.