POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 20 (04-01-2015)

Occupy Central

Occupy Central is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to "international standards." The movement was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷), an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in January 2013.

Umbrella Movement

The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動; pinyin: yǔsǎn yùndòng) is a loose political movement that was created spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of 2014. Its name derives from the recognition of the umbrella as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Hong Kong government, and the united grass-roots objection to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) of 31 August.

The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace,  groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.

Occupy Central site in Causeway Bay was cleared as police moved in  ...

POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 20: 

Full coverage of the day’s events

Police take new line on 'Lennon Wall' graffiti as 'Chalk Girl' pens letter of thanks to Hong Kong

After fencing off the "Lennon Wall" at the former Occupy protest site in Admiralty last week, police relented, letting members of the public draw on the concrete in chalk.

C.Y. Leung's meet-the-people forums suspended in wake of Occupy protests

The government has suspended the chief executive's ritual meet-the-people sessions for the first time in the wake of the Occupy Central protests.

Four asked to amplify student voices


Scholarism has invited four political figures to take part in a dialogue on relaunching the five-step political reform process.
The four are former chief executive candidate Henry Tang Ying-yen, Executive Council convener Lam Woon-kwong, Exco member Bernard Charnwut Chan and ex-financial secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung.

Scholarism spokesman Oscar Lai Man-lok said they were chosen as they have affirmed the importance of young people or are close to civil groups.

Tang said he wants to learn details of the second round of consultation before responding to Scholarism. But as Lai explained, the students want the four sooner rather than later as they can carry voices of young people to those in power. So a discussion is wanted perhaps with weeks.

"Leung has said publicly that young people are the hope of Hong Kong, Lam is familiar with lots of large-scale civil groups," Lai said in explaining the thinking behind the four names.

If the four refuse to attend, invites will go to other influential people such as Executive Council member Anna Wu Hung-yuk.

Scholarism convener Joshua Wong Chi-fung said a proposal by University of Hong Kong law professor Albert Chen Hung-yee to allow voters to reject candidates put up by the Election Committee will not resolve conflicts as democrats, who have 55 percent of votes in legislative elections, will be shut out.

The talk, Wong added, should be about identifying good candidates, not about preventing someone from being elected. KENNETH LAU




CE hopefuls may need 150 votes in initial poll stage

Eddie Luk 


Chief executive hopefuls will each have to secure at least 150 nominations or one-eighth of the Nominating Committee in the initial stage of the nomination process for the 2017 election, under a government proposal.
But they will still have to get at least half, or 600 votes, from the 1,200-strong committee to run officially as candidates.

The government will propose the nomination bar in the second round of public consultation to be launched on Wednesday by the political reform task force led by Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.


The National People's Congress Standing Committee on August 31 laid down that candidates need to obtain the support of at least half of Nominating Committee members to contest the 2017 chief executive election. The government is also expected to propose three options on how members will nominate candidates.

One option is for each member to have multiple votes for three potential candidates.

Another is for each member to vote on more than three candidates, and a third option is for each member to vote on candidates one by one. Those who successfully obtain at least half of the committee's support can subsequently run in the election.

Meanwhile, Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung again reiterated that discussions on political reform must be held in a "pragmatic and rational manner."

Yuen added: "There is still room for enhancing the competitiveness among candidates in the chief executive election and citizens' participation in the election."

He did not comment on a suggestion by University of Hong Kong legal academic Albert Chen Hung-yee for an interim chief executive if more than half of the voting public cast blank ballots in the 2017 election.


Former Democratic Party lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong said Chen's proposal still does not quality as genuine universal suffrage. But Chinese University economics professor Sung Yun-wing said it is a lawful arrangement and if voters are dissatisfied with all candidates, they could veto them and the effect would be similar to a civil referendum.