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Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai, Federation of Students' secretary-general Alex Chow, Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong and lawmaker Alan Leong explain the decision to protesters in Admiralty. Photo: Sam Tsang

Update | Occupy leaders may still poll protesters on future of movement, Benny Tai reveals after 11th-hour U-turn

Occupy Central organisers may yet hold a poll on the future direction of the movement and volunteers are leading 'chat groups' at protest sites to collect demonstrators' views.

Occupy Central organisers may yet hold a poll on the future direction of the movement and volunteers are leading "chat groups" at protest sites to collect the views of demonstrators on the streets, Occupy co-founder Benny Tai revealed today.

Speaking on RTHK's Talkabout programme this morning, Tai admitted to making a mistake in trying to run a ballot for Occupy protesters, which was due to be launched yesterday evening, “in haste”.

Just hours before the launch of the electronic ballot the plug was pulled. The decision followed complaints by protesters that the leaders had not sufficiently discussed with demonstrators the poll's methodology or objectives. Shelving, they said, did not however mean the occupation would end, Federation of Students secretary general Alex Chow Yong-kang said.

This morning Benny Tai unveiled a change of direction in an attempt at appeasing the protesters and said lessons had been learned.

"We have started these chat groups,” Tai said. “Many volunteers are now collecting protesters’ views in the occupation zones to see how the movement should move forward.”

“We have neglected the fact that a civil movement is not just about voting, but also about making decisions from bottom up. Now we are going back to this step and see if we should need another vote,” he said, adding that technical problems for online voting at the protest sites had been sorted out.

The discussions instigated by the chat groups would include, among other subjects, whether five pro-democracy lawmakers, from each of the city’s five geographical constituencies, should resign, triggering a de-facto city-wide referendum, Tai said.

Alex Chow Yong-kang, secretary-general of the Federation of Students, also noted the poll had met with doubts from protesters.

“Some think the wording of our motion was too mild. They felt as if we are taking a step backward, after all this time they have occupied the streets,” Chow said, referring to one of the motions that the public sentiment report submitted by the government to Beijing must “propose” the national legislature withdraws its August decision, which laid down a strict framework for the city’s chief executive election in 2017.

Chow urged the government to lay down a roadmap to achieve equal suffrage. “Some people are too sympathetic with the government and think they cannot do anything,” he said. “But the government has thrown the proposals of setting up a platform without explaining what to do with it. They must have thought it through before making the suggestion,” he said.

The decision to scrap the poll came after some protesters said it was redundant. A huge banner that called for delaying the poll was hung from an Admiralty footbridge yesterday morning.

Announcing the axing of the poll, Occupy Benny Tai said last night: "The public may feel there are problems with the movement's organisation and leadership, and we admit that … I promise that in the future, we will give sufficient notice to and discuss with protesters before making a major formal decision."

READ MORE: To view all the latest Occupy Central stories click here

Protester Shirley Cheung, 40, agreed it was right to delay the poll. "The government has met [Occupy] organisers," she said in Admiralty. "We need to wait for the government's reply. The organisers should spend more time talking to the protesters on what the next step should be."

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who led a government team to talk to federation leaders last Tuesday, would only reiterate the government's sincerity in holding further talks. "I don't know what this action implies," Lam said. "I can only say the government started the dialogue with the federation with the greatest sincerity … and made a very proactive response."

At the meeting, Lam had offered to consider submitting a public-opinion report on Beijing's political reform framework to the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. She had also suggested creating a discussion platform for post-2017 political development. The federation said the offers lacked substance.

Two motions were to be put to last night's vote, which was to be held over two nights. The first called on Beijing to withdraw its August ruling. The second called for the scrapping of functional constituency seats in the 2016 legislative poll and for public nomination in the 2017 chief executive election.

City University political scientist Dr James Sung Lap-kung believed the poll U-turn could ease tensions. But it "gives people the impression that the Occupy protests lack leadership and organisation and that the leaders have no idea how the movement should proceed", he said.

An Occupy supporter sleeps at the Mong Kok protest site on Sunday. Photo: Sam Tsang

Meanwhile, anti-Occupy group, the Alliance for Peace and Democracy, urged civil servants to sign its petition, launched on Saturday, opposing the occupation protests and backing the police. About 650,000 people had signed by last night.

A government spokesman said all political appointees, except Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung, would sign the petition online to show support. Yuen would not take part, so as to stay neutral.

Harry's view
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Occupy leaders pull plug on poll
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