HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s government formally asked Beijing on Tuesday for legal changes that will ultimately let residents of the southern Chinese city elect their leader for the first time, but downplayed calls for the public to nominate candidates free of China’s vetting.

The former British colony’s Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, said in the report that consultations with nearly 125,000 people and groups in the city found they were “eager” for universal suffrage. He advised Beijing that changes to Hong Kong’s mini-constitution were needed for democratic reform, kicking off a process that will let voters pick the city’s next leader in 2017.