New | Radicals admit moderate proposals would give voters ‘genuine choice’
Concern after Occupy shortlist for political reform insists on public nomination
The radical groups behind two of the three political reform proposals to be put to a public vote next month admit moderate plans should also be included.
The proposals from student-led groups Scholarism and the Alliance for True Democracy were among the shortlist chosen by some 2,500 supporters of Occupy Central on Tuesday’s “deliberation day” for its civil referendum scheduled next month.
But both – and the third winning proposal from radical pan-democrats People Power – allow voters to nominate candidates for chief executive in 2017, which Beijing has ruled out.
Scholarism’s convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung and Alliance’s Professor Joseph Cheng Yu-shek agreed people could have a real choice if moderate plans proposing that public nomination was not a must was included in the vote scheduled June 20-22.
“In principle I hope there would be more proposals for people’s choice on June 22,” said Wong at Commercial Radio today. “But I respect the arrangement because it is a consensus reached in the first and second deliberation days.”
He was referring to the sessions where Occupy supporters gathered and discussed how to push forward democracy, as part of the civil disobedience plan. The poll took place after the third deliberation day on Tuesday.
But the arrangement sparked concerns from fellow pan-democrats, including former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang and Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah, whose moderate proposals missed the cut.