Support for Hong Kong political reform plan at 47pc, says poll

Fewer than half of respondents interviewed by three universities support the government proposal for the 2017 chief executive election.

The results of three separate polls commissioned by the city's major television stations fail to validate Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor's claim that "about 60 per cent" of people back the government's reform package.

The latest poll - commissioned by Now TV and conducted by the three institutions - found that 47 per cent support the government proposal, while 38 per cent oppose it. The remaining 16 per cent said they were undecided.

The proposal - which must follow Beijing's stringent framework set down in August last year - would allow two or three chief executive aspirants to go forward to a popular vote if they receive majority support from a 1,200-strong nominating committee. Members will vote on those who receive at least 120 recommendations in a primary.

A demographic analysis of the poll results showed that younger and more educated respondents had a stronger preference for vetoing the reform.

A total of 1,167 respondents were polled by the University of Hong Kong, Chinese University and Polytechnic University between Thursday last week and Monday.

The rolling poll will continue until the day before the reform package is put to a vote in the Legislative Council in late June. Its margin of error is plus or minus 1.6 percentage points.

The latest result was similar to recent polls commissioned by TVB and Cable TV - which found 50.9 per cent and 49 per cent respectively want Legco to pass the blueprint.

Commenting on the polls, Lam noted that most showed "around half" backed the proposal, stressing that more supported than opposed it.

Asked if she was exaggerating when she said that 60 per cent backed the proposal, Lam said she meant a majority - sometimes up to 80 per cent - supported having one person, one vote.

She added: "We are not waging a war on public support. We feel obliged to explain the proposal to the public."

Lam said in a radio phone-in programme last week that several surveys showed that "about 60 per cent" of respondents wanted the reform plan to be endorsed.

A government official told the South China Morning Post in February that the administration believed backing from more than 60 per cent of Hongkongers for a less-than-ideal version of universal suffrage might persuade pan-democrats to support the reform.

However, Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said yesterday the poll results showed they had enough backing to veto the reform.

He said they would be obliged to block it if "one-third of Hongkongers refused to pocket it".

Additional reporting by Gary Cheung