Poll by ex-chief executive shows nearly half of Hongkongers want reform passed

An opinion poll commissioned by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's think tank showed nearly half of Hongkongers felt the Legislative Council should approve the government's political reform package for the 2017 chief executive election.

The survey, compiled by Chinese University and released last night, contrasted sharply with the latest rolling poll by three universities showing for the first time that more people opposed the blueprint than supported it.

Tung's Our Hong Kong Foundation announced that 49.4 per cent of 1,200 people polled last week answered "yes" to its question on whether the reform package should be passed - a 1.9 percentage point increase compared with the same poll in the previous week.

But 39.5 per cent of respondents thought lawmakers should vote down the proposal, up 1.3 percentage points on the previous week, leaving the gap little changed between supporters and opponents.

Chinese University political scientist Professor Ma Ngok said the disparity between the results of Tung's survey and the rolling poll by the three universities might be related to the wording of their questions.

The latter poll asked whether people supported or opposed the reform blueprint.