Referendum on Hong Kong reform won’t break political deadlock, says DAB’s Starry Lee

A referendum on the government’s political reform proposal will not help break the current impasse on the issue, an Executive Council member said today.

Starry Lee Wai-king, also vice-chairwoman of the pro-Beijing DAB, said there was little time left before the Legislative Council vote – expected this summer – on a reform plan and it would be difficult to organise a poll that can be recognised by all parties.

“I think it will be quite difficult for this to break the impasse,” she told Commercial Radio today.

Lee said one difficulty was that pan-democrats had vowed to reject the proposal even if it garnered the majority support of the public. She doubted if they would recognise the results of such a public poll.

“It would be a long process to persuade all lawmakers to agree to vote in accordance with the poll results,” she said.

Lee was commenting on a suggestion by University of Hong Kong pollster Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu that a referendum should be held so lawmakers could take it as a reference when voting.