Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Hong Kong’s unofficial vote for democracy

Almost 800,000 people – about one in five of the voting population – have taken part in Hong Kong’s ‘democracy referendum’, held over 10 days last month.

The vote was unofficial, organised by the pro-democracy group, Occupy Central, with the aim of demonstrating that citizens of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) support universal suffrage - and to pressure Beijing into allowing a realistic way of choosing the Hong Kong Chief Executive in reforms, planned for 2017.

When the former British colony was handed back to China on June 30, 1997 Beijing promised that its citizens would eventually receive universal suffrage under its ‘One Country, Two Systems’ model. The original date for its introduction, 2012, was set aside, many activists believing China hoped that Hong Kong’s democracy movement would lose heart and fade away.

This clearly hasn’t happened, and although 2017 is still on schedule for full universal suffrage, Beijing has ruled that candidates must come from a list selected by a nominating committee, possibly allowing it to screen out anyone it disapproves of.

The referendum asked Hong Kongers to select a system for electing a Chief Executive, currently appointed by a small group of pro-Beijing establishment figures. The winner, with around 42 per cent of the vote, allows candidates to be nominated either by 35,000 registered voters or by any political party which gained at least five per cent of the vote in the previous election for the Legislative Council.

Such a plan would inevitably lead to multi-party democracy, something that is anathema to Beijing where continuation of the Communist one-party system is put on an equal footing with protection of the nation as a whole.

In the past Hong Kongers have taken to the streets in their hundreds of thousands to protest against any perceived backsliding on the road to democracy. Until now the campaign has been provocative – Hong Kong flags from its colonial era were waved at demonstrations a year ago – but generally peaceful.

Fears are that an outright rejection of this proposal will lead to a campaign of civil disobedience which could turn violent, giving Beijing the excuse to launch a crackdown and creating yet another flashpoint in a region which already has a surfeit of them

 

 

 

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