TUNNEL VISION Stinging rebute to Lam, Beijing
ROUTED: HONG KONG LEADER STANDS FIRM AFTER POLL BLOW
Pro-democracy leaders’ pleas for probes into police brutality ignored.
Hong Kong’s deeply unpopular leader Carrie Lam acknowledged yesterday that public dissatisfaction with her government fuelled a landslide win by pro-democracy candidates in local elections, but offered no new concessions to resolve months of violent protests.
In China, state media sought to downplay and discredit the weekend ballot that delivered a stinging rebuke to the financial hub’s pro-Beijing establishment in what was widely seen as a referendum on Lam’s handling of the unrest.
The city’s chief executive pledged to “improve governance” in the wake of the district council elections, which she acknowledged revealed concern over “deficiencies in the government, including unhappiness with the time taken to deal with the current unstable environment”.
In a rout that stunned the semi-autonomous territory, candidates campaigning against greater control by China seized an overwhelming majority of 452 elected seats in the city’s 18 district councils, bodies that have historically been firmly in the grip of a Beijing-aligned establishment.
The result of the first vote held since protests engulfed the city was a humiliating rebuke to Beijing and Lam, who has dismissed calls for political reform and repeatedly suggested that a silent majority supported her administration.
In the wake of the polls, pro-democracy politicians have stepped up calls for Lam to address the movement’s key demands, such as direct popular elections for the city’s leadership and legislature and a probe into alleged police brutality against demonstrators.
But in yesterday’s weekly press briefing, she sidestepped those calls, denouncing the street violence and repeating an earlier pledge to open a dialogue on the unrest, a proposal that opponents have dismissed as too little, too late. – AFP