Popularity of HK government dips ahead of march

The popularity of the Hong Kong government has dipped by 9 percentage points ahead of an annual pro-democracy rally, a survey indicated yesterday.

A telephone poll of more than 1,000 people found that only 60 percent said they trusted the government of the former British colony compared to 69 percent in April.

Trust in the central government in Beijing also dipped sharply over the same period from 53 percent to 46per cent, according to the poll by the University of Hong Kong.

The poll results come just days before an annual July 1 pro-democracy march in the city of 6.8 million which has attracted up to 500,000 protesters in past years.

Much lower numbers are expected at this year's march as record turnouts in 2003 and 2004 coincided with the declining popularity of former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華).

His successor Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), who took over in June last year, has much higher popularity ratings but is viewed as being firmly under the thumb of China's leaders who chose him for the job.

Hong Kong lawmakers were last month accused of missing an opportunity to advance democracy by passing a controversial new bill to prepare for next year's leadership election.

The bill, passed by 31 votes to 21, was aimed at smoothing out the chief executive election process, the next of which is due to take place next year.

It addressed a number of technical issues including the procedure when only one candidate is nominated, as was the case with Tsang.

However, pro-democracy campaigners, who have been calling for a timetable for democracy and the relaxing of rules which bar election candidates with a political party membership, said the bill was a letdown for the people and it offered little in terms of progress to democracy.