Legislative Council President Jasper Tsang Yok-sing is Hong Kong’s most popular lawmaker, according to the latest study by The University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme (HKUPOP), making it the 12th consecutive time he has topped the list since April 2013.

The “Top 10 Legislative Councillors” survey was conducted by HKUPOP in January. In the first stage of the survey, 1,030 respondents were asked to name up to 10 legislators whom they knew best. During the second stage, 1,010 respondents were then asked to rate the legislators using a 0-100 scale.

LegCo president Jasper Tsang when he announced the meeting was adjourned.

Former Liberal Party Chairman James Tien was in second place while his brother, New People’s Party deputy chairman Michael Tien, took third. The positions of both lawmakers were unchanged from the last survey conducted in October 2015.

Democratic Party Chairwoman Emily Lau has gone up by two positions and is in fourth place, pushing New People’s Party Chairwoman Regina Ip down one spot to fifth.

In sixth to tenth places are Labour Party Vice-chairman Lee Cheuk-yan, former Democratic Party Chairman Albert Ho, League of Social Democrats’ Chairman “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, and the People Party’s Albert Chan and Wong Yuk-man. Meanwhile, Civic Party leader Alan Leong has dropped out of the top 10 list.

Jasper Tsang, James Tien, Michael Tien, Regina Ip and Albert Ho have also seen a drop in their absolute ratings that went beyond sampling errors, HKUPOP Senior Data Analyst Edward Tai said.

See also: CY Leung popularity rating hits an all-time low ahead of policy address

legislators ratings
Ratings of top 5 lawmakers over time. Photo: HKUPOP.

In order to allow readers to take note of the factors that could have potentially affected the polling figures, HKUPOP also listed significant events that took place since the last survey in its “Opinion Daily” section.

Included on the list of events were the 2016 policy address by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, media reports on the missing bookseller, the public consultation on retirement protection, the Legislative Council Panel on Education’s public hearing on the Territory-wide System Assessment, and so on.

See also: Policy Address satisfaction at all-time record low – HKU poll

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Karen is a journalist and writer covering politics and legal affairs in Hong Kong for HKFP. She has also written features on human rights, public space, regional legal developments, social and grassroots activism, and arts & culture. She is a BA and LLB graduate from the University of Hong Kong.