A quarter of young adults (25.1 percent) would abstain from voting in the coming Chief Executive election if they were given the chance, according to a recently completed survey of 734 Hong Kong youths.

The survey was conducted between 4 and 18 January 2012 by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), the HKIEd Students’ Union, the youth think tank Roundtable Community and Powersoft Consultancy Limited, to gauge the views of Hong Kong’s young adults on the election of the next Chief Executive. Five hundred young adults aged 18-34 were surveyed by telephone, and a further 234 HKIEd students took part in a corresponding online survey.

With regard to candidate preferences, overall the respondents favoured Leung Chun-ying (32.1 percent), Henry Tang (20.6 percent) and Albert Ho (8.1 percent).The young adults aged 18-34 chose Leung Chun-ying (26.6 percent), Henry Tang (26.2 percent) and Albert Ho (10.2 percent). The HKIEd students, in contrast, chose Leung Chun-ying (45.5 percent), Henry Tang (10.6 percent) and Albert Ho (5.6 percent).

When giving reasons for supporting the candidates, the respondents saw Leung Chun-ying as possessing personal capability (53.1 percent), having the ability to understand public opinion (51.3 percent), and his governing vision (37.3 percent). The respondents thought that Henry Tang had personal capability (36.1 percent), a good relationship with the central government (31.9 percent), the ability to understand public opinion (29.2 percent), and can cooperate with civil servant (29.2 percent). They supported Albert Ho for his ability to understand public opinion (64.9 percent), his governing vision (45.6 percent) and his personal capability (33.3 percent). 

The survey also asked the respondents about their attitudes towards the current government’s performance. They were generally dissatisfied with that performance: 48.0 percent were dissatisfied in relation to economic development; 61.9 percent were dissatisfied in relation to improving people’s livelihoods; and 61.7 percent were dissatisfied in relation to democratic development.

A very large majority of the respondents (82.8 percent) also thought that Hong Kong had a so-called “real estate hegemony”. When asked about whether the Hong Kong government should abandon its “positive non-interventionist” policies, the respondents’ attitudes were split: 31.1 percent agreed with the change; 29.9% disagreed; and 29.9% said “so-so”.

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For media enquiries, please contact:
Professor Joshua Mok Ka-ho (Dean, HKIEd Faculty of Arts and Sciences): 2948 7322
Mr Zero Liu (President, HKIEd Students’ Union): 6803 4108
Mr Gary Wong (Vice Chancellor, Governing Council of Roundtable Community): 6682 3944
Ms Nicole Lau (Researcher, Powersoft Consultancy Limited): 9600 9721

Appendix I: Survey Results (Chinese version only)