What if Hongkongers don’t support reform plan? CY ducks the question

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Tuesday sidestepped a question about what the government would do if more Hongkongers opposed its political reform package than supported it, saying the notion was still hypothetical.

He said opinion polls were references for policy making, regardless of their results. He also warned that people must think of the consequences if the reform package was rejected.

Leung was speaking a day after three of the city’s universities announced that only 42.5 per cent of 1,157 respondents to a joint rolling poll they are conducting supported the government’s proposal, while 39.5 per cent opposed it.

The gap was the narrowest since the survey started on April 23, when the government began its blitz to promote the proposal that follows the restrictive framework imposed by Beijing.

In August, the national legislature ruled that when Hong Kong elects its leader for the first time in 2017, it must choose from two or three hopefuls endorsed by the majority of a 1,200-strong nominating committee.

The pan-democrats have vowed to vote it down this summer, saying it will screen out candidates not favoured by Beijing.