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by Staff Writers Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 26, 2014
Hong Kong pro-democracy activists Sunday suspended a planned vote on the next steps in their month-long protest -- hours before it was due to begin -- due to differing opinions on how the movement should proceed, organisers said. A statement from the main groups involved in the protest said the suspension was agreed "because there were many different opinions about the format of the vote" as well as other matters. They were due to hold a press conference shortly. The vote by mobile phone had been set to take place on Sunday and Monday evening to gauge opinions on how demonstrators should respond to conciliatory measures offered by the government in a bid to end their mass sit-ins, which have paralysed several major city junctions. Tens of thousands of Hong Kongers spilled onto the streets in late September in anger at Beijing's refusal to grant free leadership elections to the former British colony. It insists that candidates for the 2017 vote must be vetted by a pro-China committee. But the crowds have dwindled, with protest leaders struggling to keep up momentum and clashes breaking out with both opponents and the police. Hong Kong's government made tentative concessions to the protesters during talks last Tuesday, saying they would file a report to Beijing about recent events and suggesting that both sides set up a committee to discuss further political reform beyond 2017. Voting protesters were to set be asked two questions about how to respond to the government offers. The pro-democracy movement is facing growing pressure to decide on its next move, with frustration growing among residents after a month of traffic mayhem caused by the protests. "We feel we have been conducting the vote hastily," Benny Tai, a co-founder of the Occupy Central protest group, told reporters. "There is not enough deliberation." "We decided to adjourn the vote at the square but it doesn't mean the movement has stopped," he said.
Hong Kong protesters to hold street vote The leaders of the mass demonstrations that have paralysed parts of the city for nearly a month said they will poll demonstrators at the main protest camp opposite government headquarters for two days starting Sunday evening. During face-to-face talks Tuesday with student leaders, government negotiators offered to write a report to mainland Chinese authorities detailing protester sentiments. They also suggested both sides could set up a joint committee to discuss further political reform beyond the next leadership elections in 2017. Protest leaders initially dismissed the offers as lacking substance but have since decided to conduct a straw poll of voters to decide on their next move. Founder of pro-democracy group Occupy Central Benny Tai said the poll, which will take place on Sunday and Monday from 7pm to 11pm, is not concerned with a protest retreat. "The purpose of the poll is to provide a way for the participants of the umbrella movement to respond to the two suggestions provided by the government and to pressure the authorities," Tai told protesters in the main protest area of Admiralty late Friday. Tai said the report to Chinese authorities must express the view that the National People's Congress, China's legislature, should rescind their decision on Hong Kong's constitutional reform made late August. Beijing has insisted that Hong Kong's next leader be vetted by a loyalist committee ahead of the 2017 election. The joint committee suggested by the government must also talk about how to include civil nominations for the 2017 chief executive election, Tai said. Plans for the vote came as former leader Tung Chee-hwa called the protests a "gross violation", warning that the consequences of continuing the rallies beyond a month were "very serious". Tung was Hong Kong's first chief executive after the 1997 handover and was himself ousted after huge protests. "We need to end this occupation because not only... is it hurting the livelihood of people but it's a gross violation of the law," Tung told reporters in his first public comments since the protests began nearly four weeks ago. - Protesters unlikely to listen - One pro-democracy lawmaker dismissed Tung's comments, saying they would have little impact on predominantly young protesters who have no respect for a former leader known for his consistently pro-Beijing politics. "They (the government) are acting out of desperation if they felt Tung Chee-hwa just might command some moral or ideological authority over the general population here. That's more than a myth, it's just a joke," lawmaker Claudia Mo told AFP. Tung also lent his support to the city's embattled leader Leung Chun-ying. "During this time where there are many risks, I feel he has performed very well and has also gained the trust of the Chinese government," he said Tung had his own share of troubles in handling pro-democracy protests when 500,000 people took part in a rally against a proposed national security bill in 2003, forcing his administration to shelve it. It was a key factor in his resignation eighteen months later. A United Nations rights watchdog on Thursday pressed Hong Kong to enact democratic reforms, saying moves so far fell short of what was needed. But China and Hong Kong both brushed the criticism aside. "China is not a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights...the convention is not a standard by which Hong Kong's development can be judged," Chinese Ministry Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. Hong Kong authorities reiterated universal suffrage would only be implemented in accordance with Beijing's decision. In the city Friday, firemen removed a 28-metre protest banner that read "I want genuine universal suffrage" from the peak of Lion Rock Mountain, with the government saying it "would have posed a danger to public safety if it had been blown off by strong wind". Fresh scuffles also broke out in the afternoon between protesters and a group of masked men who tried to pull down barricades in the densely packed working-class district Mongkok, which has seen some of the worst violence.
Related Links Democracy in the 21st century at TerraDaily.com
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