Can alliance survive after Occupy vote?
Activists' snub for reform plans that bar public nomination further splits pan-democrats and raises questions on value of next month's poll
On the face of it, radical pan-democrats were the winners of Occupy Central's final "deliberation day". Their supporters ensured that all three proposals to be put to a public vote next month would see voters have the power to nominate candidates for chief executive in 2017.
Yet the result of Tuesday's shortlisting, by 2,500 activists, is likely to deepen the rift between radicals and moderates, who wanted the public to be able to pick a proposal that left nomination to a nominating committee, as stipulated by the Basic Law.
Radicals now face the question of whether enough people will vote to make the citywide "referendum" from June 20 to 22 a worthwhile exercise.
Meanwhile, one key question for the camp as a whole is whether the Alliance for True Democracy, which brings together 26 of the 27 pan-democratic lawmakers, can hold together.
The question arises after League of Social Democrats and People Power lawmakers urged their supporters to vote against the alliance's reform plan on Tuesday. The plan, under which the public, political parties and a nominating committee could all choose candidates, finished third in the voting and will be an option in the referendum.
Alliance convenor Professor Joseph Cheng Yu-shek said the two parties had since agreed to campaign for its plan in the referendum, despite the fact a proposal from People Power will also be on the ballot. A plan by Scholarism and the Federation of Students topped Tuesday's poll.