Academics and civic groups yesterday questioned using by-elections as a referendum on universal suffrage, warning that such a plan could give the impression there was weakening support for democracy, derailing 20 years of progress.
While there were also expressions of support for initiating a de facto referendum, the polarised opinions highlight how far pan-democrats still have to go before achieving a consensus on how to proceed on political reform.
The Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats support the resignation of a lawmaker from each of the five geographical constituencies to use the ensuing by-elections as a de facto referendum to measure support for the 2017 and 2020 universal suffrage models.
The Democratic Party has yet to reach a decision on this strategy, while individual pan-democratic lawmakers have also been hesitant, fearing that any action to quit the legislature would not sit well with constituents who voted them in.
'If you lose all five seats, then you really should resign en masse for bringing down the democracy movement,' said Professor Ma Ngok, a political analyst at Chinese University and member of the Democratic Development Network. He said experience showed that political reform had little significance during by-elections, and the plan might backfire by giving the impression the desire for democracy was waning.
The chairman of the Democratic Foundation, Alan Lung Ka-lun, also opposed the plan, saying the pan-democrats risked alienating supporters because the radical voices were drowning out moderates.
In his policy address on Wednesday last week, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen announced that the consultation on political reform would begin next month. Pan-democrats have said they would reject a consultation document or reform package that failed to resolve the ultimate universal suffrage models in 2017 and 2020. But they remain divided on how to pressure the administration into doing so.