HK chief poll has 'no legal standing'

No practices or methods regarding reform for the 2017 chief executive election may deviate from the Basic Law, said Hong Kong's Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, who pledged to listen to the people's views reflected in a poll that has no legal standing.

Billed as a "civil referendum", the poll has been run by the "Occupy Central" campaign to pick an electoral reform package. The organizers plan to hold an indefinite blockade in Central, Hong Kong's business heart, to make the government accept its endorsed proposal.

The State Council's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office and the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong has denounced the poll for not having legal standing, since the Basic Law has not given the special administrative region authority to organize any "civil referendum".