DHAKA: More than half a million people have voted in an unofficial Hong Kong electoral reform poll, organisers said on Saturday, in a ballot hit by a massive cyberattack and labelled by Beijing as ‘illegal’.

Online polling started on Friday at noon and 500,436 residents had taken part in the ‘civil referendum’ by 3.00pm local time on Saturday, reports The Straits Times.

The poll asks how voters would like to choose their next leader.

The former British colony's leader is currently appointed by a 1,200-strong pro-Beijing committee but there have been increasingly vocal calls for residents to be able to choose who can run for the chief executive post.

BDST: 1514 HRS, JUNE 21, 2014