Majority in poll opposes Beijing screening candidates for top job
More than half of Hongkongers say candidates should be allowed to run for chief executive in 2017 if they are endorsed by one-eighth of nominating committee members, a survey has found.
More than half of Hongkongers say candidates should be allowed to run for chief executive in 2017 if they are endorsed by one-eighth of nominating committee members, a survey has found.
About 60 per cent wanted the Legislative Council to vote down any electoral reform package that screens out critics of Beijing.
Beijing-loyalist politicians have repeatedly said they expect the National People's Congress Standing Committee to require candidates to win half of the nominating committee's support to run in the election, the first time the city's leader will be picked by universal suffrage.
Arrangements for the election will be announced by the Standing Committee, which meets from August 25 to 31.
The Chinese University opinion poll was commissioned by former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang's discussion group Hong Kong 2020.
She said: "If the Standing Committee sets the bar at over half of the nominating committee in order to qualify as a candidate, this would undoubtedly be a step backward. This would be a fake universal suffrage that is no different from [allowing] Beijing to hand-pick [a leader] … and it cannot solve the governance difficulties that Hong Kong [currently faces]."