Hong Kong democracy groups take to streets as key vote looms

HONG KONG — Pro-democracy campaigners took to the streets of Hong Kong Sunday, but in far smaller numbers than expected, before a vote on a political reform package that has divided the city and sparked mass protests.

The controversial electoral road map, which lays out how Hong Kong’s next leader should be chosen, goes for debate at the legislature on Wednesday and will be voted on by the end of the week.

It is the culmination of a fraught chapter which saw tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters bring parts of the city to a standstill late last year.

Those rallies were sparked by a ruling from Beijing that candidates in the city’s first ever public vote for its leader in 2017 must be vetted.

Pro-democracy lawmakers in the semiautonomous Chinese city have vowed to vote down the election package, which sticks to Beijing’s ruling.

Currently the chief executive is elected by a 1,200-strong proBeijing committee.

More than 1,000 people set off from the city’s Victoria Park on Sunday afternoon, heading towards the legislative council building where they are due to rally into the evening.

With temperatures soaring to 30 degrees Celsius and humidity at almost 80%, numbers were well below organizers’ hopes as the march began — they had said they expected 50,000 to join.

Sunday’s gathering is the first of a series of rallies which activists say will take place each day until lawmakers vote on the bill.

Despite fragmentation in the prodemocracy camp, all the key players from last year’s protests, which became known as the Umbrella Movement, are set to take part.

“Vetoing ( the bill) is not something to be happy about,” said Labor Party lawmaker Lee Cheuk Yan, addressing the crowd on Sunday.

“It shows Hong Kong people have the courage to veto the rotten proposal, but it doesn’t mean we have won.”

Latest figures from one joint university poll showed those against the reform package taking the lead for the first time with 43%, versus 41.7% in support.

“People may feel exhausted and directionless, but… we need to fight on to get back our Hong Kong, and our basic political rights,” added Johnson Yeung of Civil Human Rights Front, which organized the march.

Marchers held placards demanding “true universal suffrage” and yellow umbrellas, symbol of the pro-democracy movement.

Authorities have warned activists to distance themselves from “troublemakers” and said they have heightened security at the government complex.

Police cleared what they called “dangerous objects” including bottles and wooden planks from a small protest camp outside the legislature on Saturday.

Last year’s mass protests saw sporadic violence, with thousands joining the demonstrations after police fired tear gas.

With the reform package expected to be blocked by pan-democrats, who have enough votes to stop it, analysts say there is little hope of a quick resolution to the political impasse. —