700,00 Hong Kong citizens had voted for their right to nominate the chief executive by the end of June 22, 2014. Image from Occupy Central with Love and Peace’s Facebook page.
About 700,000 Hong Kong citizens have voted so far in an unofficial referendum hosted by civic group Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) on democratic electoral reform, earning the ire of communist China.
China has promised Hong Kong a direct vote for the next chief executive in 2017 instead of election via a largely pro-Beijing committee made of up representatives of different economic sectors and Hong Kong politicians. But the Chinese government insists that all candidates should be selected by a nominating committee, claiming that it is the only lawful means to do so according to the former British colony’s constitution — the Basic Law.
People in Hong Kong, which enjoys a high level of autonomy under the “one country, two systems” principle, worry that the nominating committee is a way for China to ensure only puppet candidates are chosen. One of the criteria of a chief executive set by Beijing is he or she must “love the country and love Hong Kong.”
The referendum, held in partnership with University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Programme, includes three different options for electing Hong Kong’s next leader, and all three include allowing the people to choose the candidates. Voting opened on June 20, 2014 and will end on June 29.
In the first two days alone, 700,000 participated, despite ongoing massive DDoS attacks targeting its voting system that began on June 14 when it opened for pre-registration. The scale of the attacks has led many to believe that the Chinese government is behind them. TV propaganda has pushed the idea that the nominating committee is necessary, and Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times called the referendum “an illegal farce” and “ludicrousness.”
Before the referendum began, Occupy Central expected 300,000 votes, but is now estimating that a million citizens could participate by the end. The group is planning protests if the government doesn’t act on the demands for universal suffrage.
Lester Sum, vice secretary of Hong Kong Federation of Students, wrote on citizen media platform inmediahk.net about the implications of civic referendum:
Instead of expressing himself in words, Eric Chow designed a series of posters to show the referendum as a means to defend freedom of expression, the rule of law, human rights, local culture and social justice.
Cheung Yuen Man, a local writer, took a more personal approach and wrote a letter to her senior family members who escaped to Hong Kong from China and became apolitical or even conservative:
Political news columnist “Timar Man” called the 700,000 votes so far a public opinion revolution in the House News:
The Hong Kong government will soon present a reform package for the election of the legislature in 2016 and the chief executive in 2017. It recently completed the public consultation phase, and the consultation report is due in a few months. On the surface, reform sounds promising. But the government has stressed that the reform must be within the framework of the Basic Law, and interpretation of that law rests largely with Beijing, so civic action from Hong Kongers is important.
Another unofficial referendum is planned, pitting the citizen proposal against the government proposal after it is released, and if the citizen proposal wins, Occupy Central plans to peacefully take over the city’s Central District.