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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Tossed vote leaves HK in disarray
From left to right, Benny Tai of pro-democracy group Occupy Central, Hong Kong student leaders Alex Chow and Joshua Wong and Civic Party member Alan Leong, attend a press conference in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong yesterday. Photo: AFP
/ AFP, HONG KONG
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters yesterday were forced to call off a planned vote on their next steps — hours before it was set to begin — due to differing opinions about how to move their month-long campaign forward.
Four weeks after tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the streets demanding free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, weary protesters remain encamped across several major roads. However, the crowds have shrunk dramatically and their leaders are struggling to decide how to keep up momentum.
With Beijing insisting that candidates for the 2017 vote must be vetted by a loyalist committee — an arrangement the protesters deride as “fake democracy” — there is no end to the stalemate in sight.
The vote by mobile device had been set to take place on last night and this evening to gauge protesters’ opinions on what their next moves should be.
However, just hours before voting was due to begin, protest leaders told reporters they had been forced to call it off because of differing views on how it should be carried out.
“We decided to adjourn the vote... but it does not mean the movement has stopped,” said Benny Tai （戴耀廷）, a law professor and one of the leaders of the pro-democracy group Occupy Central, adding it was a “very difficult decision to make.”
Organizers did not rule out rescheduling the vote, but were unable to say when it might take place or what it would be about.
Protest leaders bowed in apology for disappointing supporters of a movement that has come to be known as the “umbrella revolution,” after the umbrellas wielded by demonstrators in the face of police tear gas.
“There have been a lot of conflicts and different opinions,” student leader Alex Chow （周永康） told reporters.
Leaders refused to be drawn on the nature of the disagreements, but Chow said there had been concerns over how to verify that only protesters took part in the vote, amid worries that opponents might try to hijack the process.
The vote would have asked demonstrators how to respond to tentative concessions that were offered by Hong Kong’s government last week in a bid to end the sit-ins. The government offered to file a report to Beijing about recent events and suggested that both sides set up a committee to discuss political reform beyond 2017.
Neither plan met with much enthusiasm from protesters.
Frustration is growing among Hong Kong residents after a month of traffic mayhem caused by the protests, with sporadic clashes breaking out between police, protesters and opponents.
In the latest ugly scenes, four journalists were roughed up by angry pro-government demonstrators on Saturday evening at a counter-rally calling for the democracy protesters to go home.
Police said a 61-year-old man had been arrested over the assaults, which the office of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying （梁振英） condemned as a “savage act.”
While the pro-democracy movement is under growing pressure to decide where it is headed, its leaders yesterday offered few insights into how they would proceed now that the vote has been scrapped.
“At this stage of the movement, every one of us is exploring which way to go,” Tai told reporters.
A retreat was the only option that was ruled out, with student activist Joshua Wong （黃之鋒） saying it was “absolutely not the time” to quit the streets.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
