Almost half of Hongkongers want lawmakers to vote down Beijing's electoral reforms: SCMP poll
Slight rise in support for any government plan that toes Beijing's line is insufficient to sway pan-democrats into backing it, survey finds
Support for a pan-democratic threat to vote down electoral reforms tabled by the government in the legislature remained at just under half of the Hong Kong public, in a comparison of two polls commissioned by the South China Morning Post more than four months apart.
About 46 per cent of the 907 respondents polled last week backed lawmakers in voting down the government proposal on how to elect the chief executive in 2017 if it is based on Beijing's restrictive framework.
In September, before Occupy Central began its civil disobedience campaign, 48 per cent wanted lawmakers to reject the reform package.
Researchers say the difference is statistically insignificant.
On Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan's plan to resign from the Legislative Council to trigger a de facto referendum on reform, over 55 per cent gave it the thumbs down.
The weight of public opinion in favour of a less-than-ideal version of universal suffrage is seen as the government's last hope of persuading pan-democrats to support its reform package.