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A telephone survey was conducted from 23 to 28 June 2016 by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong to study the public views on the performance and prospect of political parties in Hong Kong. Questions on the intention to vote in the Legislative Council election this September were also included in the survey. 721 respondents aged 18 or above were successfully interviewed, with a response rate of 39.9%. The sampling error is ± 3.65 percentage points at a confidence level of 95%. 

Major findings are summarized as follows: 

While 49.7% of respondents were dissatisfied with the overall performance of political parties in Hong Kong, only 5.3% were satisfied, with 39.1% answered “in-between”. When asked if there was any change in their impression to local political parties relative to a year before, 54% of the respondents said that it has worsened, with only 5.3% saying that it has improved, 36.8% saying that there was “no change”. 

Among the respondents who were dissatisfied with the overall performance of political parties, around a quarter of them (24.7%) indicated that political parties failed to do their jobs. 15.7% of the respondents pointed out that political parties only worked for their self-interests rather than genuinely serving the public. 15.2% agreed that political parties only engaged in arguments among themselves. Among the small number of satisfied respondents (n=38), that the political parties could “basically represent the diversity of views of the public”, that “they could help local citizens”, and that “they could effectively monitor the operation of the government” were the top three reasons for their satisfaction.  

When asked about the prospect of development of political parties in Hong Kong for the next decade, over half of the respondents (54.1%) expressed pessimism, only 5.4% showed optimism. On the other hand, over one-third of the respondents (35.8%) supported that in the long run, HKSAR government should be run by elected political parties, while around a quarter of them (25.8%) did not agree. 

The top seven political parties or organizations that gained the most support from the respondents were the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (8.9%), the Civic Party (8.7%), the Democratic Party (7.6%), the New People’s Party (2.4%), the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (1.9%), the Liberal Party (1.7%) and Hong Kong Indigenous (1.4%). 

The survey also asked the voting intention in the Legislative Council election this September. Among 613 registered voters, around two thirds (66.4%) said that they would vote in the election, while only 5.4% said that they would not. Except those not intended to vote, over half (53.6%) of the respondents have not decided their choice of political parties or organizations. The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (10.3%), the Democratic Party (6.4%) and the Civic Party (5.5%) were the top three choices of the intended voters.