700,000 votes cast in Occupy Central poll, but ballot 'still not credible'

More than 700,000 ballots have been cast in an unofficial poll on Hong Kong's electoral reform that a former top mainland official in charge of the city's affairs dismissed yesterday as unrepresentative.

The turnout for the Occupy Central "referendum" was well above expectations, believed to be fuelled by a public backlash against Beijing's reassertion of its sovereignty over the city in a white paper two weeks ago.

But Chen Zuoer, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office from 1998 to 2008, said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post the exercise was not a frank indicator of how residents wanted to elect their chief executive in 2017.

Chen also insisted that, as all three proposals shortlisted for the poll violated the Basic Law, it was illegal.

"The media have reported that there are dishonest elements during the process of conducting the public vote, which will result in its failure to truly reflect public opinion," he said, without elaborating on those claims.

What the Occupy Central referendum asks voters

Chen's comments are sure to rile pro-democracy activists, already stung by the white paper, which critics see as a heavy-handed attempt by Beijing to quash support for Occupy Central, the civil movement advocating a democratic election in 2017.