Hong Kong’s student protest leaders will hold a referendum among followers Sunday to decide the direction of their civil disobedience campaign for universal suffrage in 2017 elections.
A coalition of protest groups says the referendum will be held at the main downtown protest site, where demonstrations are entering their fifth week. Protest leaders have vowed to include as many demonstrators as possible.
Alex Chow, secretary general of the Federation of Students, says the vote is necessary after students failed to secure any firm concessions on constitutional reform during Tuesday’s landmark talks with the government officials. At the Tuesday meeting, Hong Kong authorities offered to send a letter to China’s cabinet relaying protesters’ dismay at Beijing’s decision to pre-approve candidates for the territory’s 2017 election.
The government also offered to hold regular dialogue with the protesters on democratic reform, on the condition they end the protests that have blockaded many busy streets.
Main protest leaders have already rejected the proposals.
“Officials from the government said the platform …. would only serve for constitutional reform after 2017,” said Chow. “That does not really help to solve the current problem.”
According to those organizing Sunday’s referendum, the vote is likely to contain two motions: one on whether the occupation movement should continue, and the other on whether to accept the government’s tentative offer to discuss constitutional reform in time for elections in 2022.
There are some logistical problems in implementing the vote among protesters, who potentially number in the tens of thousands and are scattered across several sites. But Chow says it is important the vote goes ahead.
Source-VOA
