Hongkongers’ perception of the implementation of the “one country, two systems” governing model in the city has grown poorer for the first time since 2020, a new poll has found, while nearly half of respondents are dissatisfied with the city’s legislature.

According to the latest edition of the One Country Two Systems Index published on Wednesday by the Path for Democracy think tank, the public’s rating of the city’s degree of autonomy, as well as its human rights and freedoms, declined in the second half of last year.

First introduced in 2017, the biannual index is meant to track how well the one country, two systems governing principle is being implemented in Hong Kong.

The poll of 1,005 residents was carried out by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) between January 21 and February 25.

Respondents gave an average score of 5.38 for the second half of 2024, down from 5.45 in the first half of that year, and the first drop since 2020.

Public scoring had been gradually increasing since the first half of 2020, when it hit a low of 3.39. That period saw the impending implementation of the national security law to stamp out the social unrest that had previously gripped the city, while also marking the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.