The vote "means most of our members are willing to allow the Central Committee to take steps to dissolve the party", said Lo Kin-hei, chair of the 30-year-old party that was once the city's stalwart opposition force.

"This is not the final decision that the party is dissolving," Lo told a news conference.

"In the coming few months, I hope there will be another general meeting (where) we actually will get that motion into debate and vote."

More than 90 percent of the 110 or so attendees supported the motion to let party leaders deal with the procedures required for dissolution, such as accounting requirements.

Lo said in February the disbandment was due to Hong Kong's "overall political environment" but declined to say if the group had come under pressure from Beijing.

The party is the latest civil society group to shut down following a years-long political crackdown in Hong Kong after massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Four Democratic Party lawmakers were jailed last year for subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

Former party leader Albert Ho is behind bars pending trial for national security charges that could see him jailed for life.