Occupy students have 'almost zero chance' of success, says CY Leung

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said yesterday that student leaders had an "almost zero chance" of forcing Beijing to drop its restrictive framework on Hong Kong's electoral reform, which the protesters have imposed as a pre-condition of talks with officials to end the crisis.

Leung also said any talks that were not based on the Basic Law and the National People's Congress Standing Committee's ruling would not be meaningful, referring to calls by pan-democrats and student groups to allow the public to nominate chief executive candidates.

"If the pre-condition is to put aside the Basic Law and the [Standing Committee] decisions, I believe all of us know that the chance is almost zero," Leung told TVB.

He reiterated that he would not resign, as the students have also demanded, and that using force to clear protesters from the streets would be a last resort.

"I believe that my resignation will not solve the problem," Leung said. "It is because the students and other occupation protesters demand more than that. They want the Standing Committee to withdraw its August 31 decision. That is impossible."

The Standing Committee ruled that Hong Kong could use "one man, one vote" to elect the chief executive in 2017, but with only two or three candidates who had majority support from a nominating committee. Pan-democrats say it is not "genuine universal suffrage" and vow to veto the proposal in Legco.