Update | More than 500,000 vote in Occupy Central’s electoral reform poll: organiser
Voting began in online poll on reform plans for 2017 chief executive election at noon on Friday; voting system subject of one of the largest cyberattacks in history, experts say
More than 500,000 people have voted in Occupy Central’s online poll on options for the 2017 chief executive election since it launched at noon on Friday, despite the online voting system coming under one of the largest cyberattacks in history according to experts.
By 3pm on Saturday afternoon, 500,436 people cast their votes in Occupy Central’s unofficial “referendum”.
That was more than double the figure in the two-day mock election organised by the University of Hong Kong on March 2012, where 223,000 voters cast their ballot to have their say on who the city's new chief executive, while the actual election was decided by a 1,193-strong committee.
The turnout so far is also 80,000 people away from organiser Benny Tai Yiu-ting’s target to get 580,000 people to vote, to match the turnout of a Legislative Council by-election in May 2010, which was triggered by the resignation of five geographical lawmakers who hoped to use the poll as a "de facto referendum" on the pace of democratisation.
Watch: Hongkongers voice their opinion on the referendum, democracy, and Occupy Central
