Advertisement
Advertisement
Universal suffrage in Hong Kong
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Daisy Chan (left) and Brave Chan call for calm. Photos: May Tse, Felix Wong

Opposing Hong Kong protest organisers appeal for calm ahead of political reform vote

Lai Ying-kit

Protest organisers are calling for calm when thousands of supporters and opponents of the government’s political reform package gather outside the Legislative Council in the coming few days. 

Both groups are planning to demonstrate in the designated protest zone at the Legislative Council complex on Wednesday morning, when lawmakers are due to start vetting the controversial package. 

According to their estimates, thousands of protesters will turn up at the site.

Expecting confrontation and insults between the two camps, Civil Human Right Front convenor Daisy Chan Sin-ying and Alliance for Peace and Democracy member Brave Chan Yung both urged participants to remain calm and stick to peaceful and lawful action.

Brave Chan, from the alliance which backs the government package, said he was concerned that some radical pan-democratic groups might take aggressive action, such as moving their protest outside the designated area.

But Chan Sin-ying, who opposes the government package, said the front would not occupy roads if the package was passed.

Meanwhile, about 40 political and business representatives published an advertisement in a Chinese-language newspaper calling for the passage of the government proposal, which stipulates that only two or three chief executive candidates receiving majority support from a 1,200-member nominating committee can go forward to a popular vote in 2017. 

The signatories include former financial services secretary Frederick Ma Si-hang,  former Hong Kong Monetary Authority chief executive Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, former Executive Council member Ronald Arculli and Hang Lung Properties managing director Philip Chen Nan-lok.

Post