Ministry says public backs HK vote plan
Print Edition
BEIJING yesterday defended Hong Kong’s plan to nominate candidates for its 2017 leadership election, saying it represented public opinion “from all walks of life” in the city.
The statement by China’s foreign ministry came as Hong Kong’s leader Leung Chun-ying hit back at “uncivilized” critics after he was booed and heckled by local residents.
Hong said the roadmap “represents public opinions from all walks of life in Hong Kong toward the referendum of the chief executive.”
He said the plan “meets the realities of Hong Kong, accommodates the rights and interests of Hong Kong people and is a viable, reasonable and pragmatic solution.”
The roadmap for the city’s first public vote for its chief executive was announced on Wednesday. It conforms to a Beijing decision that candidates must first be approved by a nominating committee.
That ruling sparked more than two months of mass protests last year.
The Hong Kong government kicked off a campaign to promote the plan after its launch but Leung and his deputy, Carrie Lam, were drowned out by protesters as they visited a middle-class district on Wednesday.
“Yesterday during the district visit ... there were some hecklers who kept using loud voices and quite uncivilized words to try to speak over others,” Leung told reporters yesterday.
Beijing has promised universal suffrage for the 2017 vote, but candidates must be approved first by a nominating committee.
“The central government consistently supports efforts to advance the democratic development” in the city, Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office said yesterday, according to Xinhua news agency.
Some lawmakers have vowed to block the roadmap when it goes to a vote in Hong Kong’s legislature.
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