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Supporters and opponents of the government 2017 electoral reform plans clash during the government promotion tour. Photo: Sam Tsang

Hong Kong politician predicts public divide on electoral reform right up to Legco vote

Public's views likely to stay split all the way to Legco vote in June, Exco convenor says

The Executive Council convenor says he does not expect the public to reach a consensus on the government's electoral reform package any time soon, as opinions are likely to remain divided up until the legislature votes on it in late June.

Lam Woon-kwong spoke after two polls, conducted separately, found a divide between supporters and opponents of the government's proposal - with neither side representing a majority - that offered no concessions to sway pan-democrats.

"As [political reform] enters the final stage, many people have made up their minds and I don't expect any drastic change in [public opinion]," Lam said on Commercial Radio yesterday.

The government on Wednesday unveiled its draft proposal for reform of the 2017 chief executive election that followed strictly Beijing's framework, announced in August. Only two or three people were to wind up as candidates in a citywide ballot after they obtained majority support on a nominating committee.

In a rolling poll by Cable TV, almost half of 505 respondents backed the package and nearly 40 per cent objected to it, the latest results showed on Friday.

Another rolling survey, held by three universities until the eve of the Legco vote, is due to yield its first-round findings today.

"I think this [divide] would last for some time, perhaps till the last moment," Lam said.

He repeated his call for pan-democratic lawmakers to approve the government's package, as that would pave the way for further reforms.

Separately, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor pointed out that various polls showed more than half of Hongkongers backed reform designed according to Beijing's ruling.

The government is facing an uphill task to win over four pan-democratic lawmakers so its package can achieve the required two-thirds majority in Legco. All 27 pan-democratic lawmakers have vowed to veto the reform that fails to give Hongkongers a genuine choice of candidates.

Since Saturday, Carrie Lam and her team has been ridiculed for not once getting off a bus during a three-hour citywide ride to tout the reform package. Critics accused the team, also including Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung and Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Raymond Tam Chi-yuen, of being "afraid to face the people".

She dismissed that idea, saying the bus tour was "disrupted by protesters who wanted to take the chance to make a scene".

Joshua Wong Chi-fung, convenor of student-led Scholarism, countered that officials "should have expected" opposing voices.

 

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: 'People have made up their minds on reform'
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