A large number of Hong Kong residents are taking part in an informal - mainly Internet-based - poll to "determine" whether they want to have a more direct say in nominating candidates for the post of Hong Kong's "chief executive" in future elections. More than 700,000 Hong Kong residents had voted until the third day of the 10-day "referendum" organized by "Occupy Central" forces.

The central government agrees to universal suffrage in future Hong Kong elections, but has denounced the poll as "illegal" and "invalid", and emphasized that "the high degree of autonomy of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region is not full autonomy, nor a decentralized power ... the Hong Kong people who govern Hong Kong should above all be patriotic."

The poll, which some people refer to as an "informal referendum", is part of a growing wave of both officially sanctioned and informal referendums, some of them Internet-based, in many countries. Venice has just held an online unofficial "referendum" on separating from Italy; the recent referendum in Crimea resulted in the region seceding from Ukraine and rejoining Russia; and Scotland is scheduled to hold an official referendum on Sept 18 on possible independence from the United Kingdom.