Federation of Students faces further break-up after HKU votes to leave
Decision to leave most influential group has caused chain reaction, with other unions now facing pressure to break away
Hong Kong's oldest and most politically influential student body could continue to split after concern groups were set up on Facebook calling for all but one of the Federation of Students' member unions to quit.
The 57-year-old federation, the city's oldest student body, organised the sit-ins that acted as a catalyst for last year's Occupy Central protests.
The latest development came after University of Hong Kong students voted narrowly to quit the federation in a referendum. It was sparked by a groundswell of support among HKU students for the so-called localist movement, which to varying degrees supports Hong Kong independence, and believes the federation's core mission to "build a democratic China" hinders its ability to represent the interests of the city.
Before HKU's referendum, two concern groups were already set up on Facebook to call for Lingnan University and the Institute of Education's student unions to quit the federation.
After HKU students voted in favour of the departure, similar groups were also created to call for the student unions of Polytechnic, City, Baptist and Chinese universities to break away from the federation as well. Each group has garnered about 600 to 1,900 supporters so far.
It means that all of the federation's seven remaining members, except for the University of Science and Technology's student union, are facing pressure to leave the umbrella group.