Pro-democracy parties top list of 'most prominent' political groups, says HKU survey

The Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood, The Civic Party and the Democratic Party are the most popular amongst the ten most prominent political groups in Hong Kong, according to a HKU Public Opinion Program (HKUPOP) survey released on Tuesday. However, none of the ten parties on the list have an approval rating of higher than 50 points out of 100.

The survey, which was conducted via telephone in October, first asked interviewees to name ten political groups they were most familiar with. The second stage involved asking respondents to rate the political groups using a 0-100 scale.

Results show that pro-democracy parties dominate the first three spots out of the ten on the list, with the ratings of Civic Party (CP) and Democratic Party (DP) going up five positions each to rank 2nd and 3rd. The Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood (ADPL) tops the list.

Overall, the support ratings of most political groups have gone down, with the approval ratings of The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), New People’s Party (NPP), The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) and Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) seeing a most significant drop.

The support ratings of the NPP, which is chaired by Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, dropped to a record low since the founding of the party in 2011, but it has also replaced the Labour Party on the list by entering the ranks of the top ten for the first time. The other nine political groups retained their positions since the last survey, which was conducted during April and May this year.

HKUPOP noted that the survey only included groups that were well-known to the public, and that “other political groups may well have very high or low support ratings, but because they are relatively less well-known, they are not included in our final list”.

Ronny Tong Ka-wah resigned from the Civic Party this year. File Photo: Stand News.

HKUPOP also listed twelve significant political events that took place since the last survey in its “Opinion Daily” section, so as to allow readers to take note of the factors that could have potentially affected the polling figures. Events on the list included the prosecution of Ken Tsang Kin-chiu and the seven police officers, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam’s comments on the politicisation of the lead water scandal, the veto of the political reform package, leaked Whatsapp messages from the pro-establishment camp, the resignation of Ronny Tong Ka-wah from the Civic Party and Legislative Council and the repatriation of undocumented boy Siu Yau-wai who had been assisted by FTU’s Chan Yuen-han.

The full list of the top ten political groups and their support rankings (out of 100) is as follows: