Hundreds participated in a protest in Hong Kong to oppose the local government's proposed electoral reform package Sunday, with far fewer demonstrating than organizers had predicted.The protest kicked off Sunday afternoon as demonstrators marched from Victoria Park in Hong Kong Island to regional government headquarters in the Admiralty district.

Organizers have said that the protest will last for five days, at which time Hong Kong's legislature is expected to have finished debating and voting on the reform package.

The package proposes that the region will be able to select its chief executive in 2017 via universal suffrage from a list of candidates approved by a nominating committee.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the organizers of the protest, said on Sunday that the number of participants was far fewer than they had expected, as it had hoped that thousands of people would demonstrate.

Tian Feilong, a legal expert at Beihang University in Beijing, told the Global Times that the protest could be seen as the final measure opposition groups can take to oppose the package before it is put to a vote, while the low turnout shows clearly that the radicals no longer receive broad public support.

"The number of participants is much lower than at previous events. This is partly a result of the violent behavior of pan-democratic groups in the past few months which resulted in a GDP drop and public discontent," he said.

"It also shows that the majority of locals are reasonable. They understand that the reform package is beneficial to the city and want to distance themselves from radical protests," he added. 

The protest was initiated by several pan-democratic groups including opposition parties, the Hong Kong Federation of Students and the Civil Human Rights Front, and it aims to pressure the local government into rejecting the package.

Some also rallied on Sunday to voice their support for the government's proposals.

A member of Voice of Loving Hong Kong, a group that supports the reforms, told the Global Times that they urge opposition legislators to think carefully about their decision as they will regret voting down the package, as this will obstruct regional political development in the future. 

A poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong announced Sunday that half of the 1,004 eligible local voters interviewed supported the package while only 33 percent were against it. 

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said Sunday that she hopes protesters will behave according to the law as she is concerned that the protest may escalate into violence, reported Radio Television Hong Kong.