Give us 'one man, one vote' even if there's no public nomination in 2017: poll

More than half the city wants the "one man, one vote" system introduced for the 2017 chief executive election even if it follows a candidate-nomination process that they are unhappy with, a survey has found.

It also found more than half of some 1,000 respondents believe it is not against the Basic Law to allow the public to nominate candidates. Public nomination has been vetoed by Beijing as against the city's mini-constitution, leading to concerns pro-democracy candidates will be screened out by a nominating committee.

The survey, conducted by Lingnan University, was commissioned by the 15-strong Concern Group for Public Opinion on Constitutional Development. The group includes three Democratic Party members; Andy Ho On-tat, a former information coordinator for ex-chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen; and Centaline Property Agency boss Shih Wing-ching.

At a press conference yesterday, Ho emphasised that the group was committed to a nonpartisan approach on reform.

"We don't belong to any political camp and we don't know how our findings will affect others' choices," Ho said. "We don't have a collective opinion on any proposal in particular, or on Occupy Central … we just wanted to deepen discussion in the society through our survey."

One of the Democrats - former lawmaker Fred Li Wah-ming - also stressed that his party had nothing to do with the concern group. He added that a report on the survey would be sent to all 70 lawmakers and the Hong Kong government.

Based on the poll, the people want to encourage lawmakers to be flexible and open to negotiation, said Dr Cheung Kwok-wah, another member of the concern group and dean of education and languages at the Open University. "Hongkongers treasure their right to choose," he added.