Hong Kong at the crossroads

Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers voted online, via smartphones and polling booths in a ten-day unofficial referendum that ended on Sunday. It was deemed illegal by the central government.

However, the vote was designed, conducted and concluded in a way that has raised questions about its political goals. The "Occupy Central" protest group offered voters three choices in support of electing the chief executive by popular vote, but none against. Also, external observers were not used. Furthermore, instead of 10 days, most parliamentary democracies use a single election day.

In practice, the number of voters in the "democracy poll" represented one-tenth of Hong Kong's population of seven million, and a fifth of registered voters.