Support among younger Hongkongers for limited democracy in the 2017 chief executive poll is higher than backing for pan-democratic lawmakers to veto any such proposal based on Beijing's stringent rules, an elite pro-government youth group has found in a survey.
Nearly half of 1,075 interviewees aged 18 to 45 said the Legislative Council should approve the government's reform proposal, to be unveiled this month, even if it toed Beijing's line to require candidate screening.
Four in 10 respondents preferred vetoing the proposal, however, which would mean keeping the status quo - of relying on an exclusive, 1,200-strong committee to elect the city's leader.
A similar proportion was worried that voting it down would affect Hong Kong society negatively, and that universal suffrage in the chief executive poll might not then be realised for a further 10 years.
The findings came from a survey commissioned by the United Youth Association, which is led by heirs of the city's prominent businessmen and politicians.
Kenneth Fok Kai-kong - grandson of late billionaire Henry Fok Ying-tung and chairman of the association - noted that the public remained divided on electoral reform.
But he urged all 27 pan-democratic lawmakers to be pragmatic instead of executing their threat to reject the proposal in summer.
"There were differences in political ideology," Fok said.
"But it's really the time to be more pragmatic and … to discuss within the [Basic Law and Beijing's] framework rather than to backtrack and discuss ideological differences."
Fok's youth group hired the Research Association to conduct the telephone interviews between March 24 and 28. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.99 percentage points.
The results were released on the day the South China Morning Post reported that moderate pan-democrats planned to stage a petition urging lawmakers in their camp to accept a watered-down version of democracy in exchange for a chance to pick the city's leader by popular ballot.
In August, the National People's Congress Standing Committee ruled that only two or three aspirants who had obtained majority support from a 1,200-strong nominating committee could vie for the top job.
In the survey, 45.1 per cent said Legco should approve the reform proposal based on Beijing's decision, while 39.6 per cent said it should not.
A third said they would be disappointed at pan-democratic legislators who opposed the proposal, but more than half said their impression of the camp would not be affected or might even improve.
Some 49.2 per cent were pessimistic about the chances of Legco approval of the reform.
Fok called on the pan-democratic lawmakers to reopen dialogue with Beijing and Hong Kong officials. He said his association would run a second survey after the government released its draft reform proposal.