Hong Kong lawmakers yesterday agreed to enlarge the electoral base for choosing the territory’s leader, while stopping well short of one person, one vote for the special administrative region’s 7 million people.
A split in the pro-democracy opposition allowed passage for the first part of a package of political reforms, to expand the Beijing-backed committee that elects the chief executive from 800 members now to 1,200 in 2012.
Legislator “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄) accused “moderates” in the Democratic Party of betrayal, as “hardliners” vowed to settle for nothing less than universal suffrage in 2012.
“Shameful! Shameful!” Leung shouted, accusing the Democratic Party of reaching an underhand deal with the former British colony’s communist overseers in Beijing.
A total of 46 out of 60 members of the Legislative Council voted for the plan to enlarge the chief executive’s appointment committee, including eight members of the Democratic Party — Hong Kong’s oldest opposition group.
Lawmakers were still debating the second half of the reform package — to expand the Legislative Council itself with the addition of 10 seats, all directly elected by voters.
That would still leave the legislature heavily influenced by pro-Beijing business elites, while the chief executive would remain reliant on backing from the central government in China.
Pro-democracy lawmakers failed to postpone the vote after a day-long debate on Wednesday that attracted raucous crowds of rival activists, both supporting universal suffrage and Beijing loyalists.
Scores of police officers, bracing for any possible clashes between the rival camps, maintained a heavy presence outside the Legislative Council building yesterday.
“We are disappointed that many lawmakers have decided to give up their dreams for democracy after years of campaigning,” said Chan King-fai (陳景輝), of the Post 80s, a group of young activists leading the pro-democracy rally.
However, the Democratic Party said the plan was still an important advance for Hong Kong, whose legal and administrative system remains independent from the rest of communist China.
Party chairman Albert Ho (何俊仁) said protestors who had greeted his lawmakers with insults and angry gestures had misunderstood them.
“My heart felt very heavy. I knew we had to pay a price when we made the decision to support the plan,” he said, stressing that the party would continue its fight for universal suffrage after the reforms go through.
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