Hong Kong holds first major vote since pro-democracy protests

[webfact]

Hong Kong holds first major vote since pro-democracy protests

 

 

HONG KONG: -- Voting is underway in Hong Kong, the first major election there since pro-democracy protests in 2014.

 

The poll for the semi-autonomous city’s 70-seat legislative council is only partially democratic.

 

Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s current leader, was among the first to vote.

 

Radical activists are challenging their pro-Beijing and mainstream pro-democracy rivals for seats.

 

“I believe that after the Umbrella movement, there is a wide awakening of civil liberties. So hopefully today we can have a high voters turnout and use our votes to yell our discontent toward CY Leung,” said Avery Ng, the Chairman of the League of Social Democrats, a radical pro-democracy party.

 

For two months in 2014 demonstrators from Hong Kong’s Umbrella movement occupied major parts of the city.

 

Amid anger of Beijing’s tightening grip, the protesters called on Leung Chun-ying to step down, demanding the right to elect a leader directly.

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-09-05

 

 

[Publicus]

 

Democracy voters are split between those who advocate independence of Hong Kong to become a Singapore to contending democracy advocates who don't see a separation from Beijing as possible.

 

Voting in HKG is similar to voting in Iran, i.e., you have to be approved by the ayatollahs Party in Beijing before you can run. It is similar to Iran but not identical, so candidates who favor independence can run and they are on the ballot.

 

Still the broad coalition HKG pan-democracy movement has slightly more than the one-third membership of the legislature to veto Beijing. So let's hope the outcome isn't any less than the status quo on the legco (legislative council).

 

In last year's local district elections some of the young Umbrella Movement democracy leaders won seats but this is for across the city and the popular vote is limited by Beijing.

[GOLDBUGGY]

China will slowly swallow Honk Kong up and into it's system. Whether it be this year or the next. 

 

I guess Great Britain should have taken this Lease out on Hong Kong for 200 years and not just 100 years, when they had the control and power to do so. 

[webfact]

New wave of anti-China activists set for Hong Kong vote win 
KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press

 

HONG KONG (AP) — A new wave of anti-China activists appeared headed for victory in Hong Kong's most crucial elections since the handover from Britain in 1997, setting the stage for a fresh round of political confrontations over Beijing's control of the city.

 

While official results were yet to be released, preliminary tallies on Monday indicated that youthful candidates from groups that emerged in the wake of 2014 pro-democracy street protests are on track to win seats.

 

Counting in some areas was delayed because of the record turnout. About 2.2 million people, or 58 percent of registered voters, cast ballots for lawmakers in the Legislative Council, which was the highest since the handover.

 

The newcomers were riding a rising tide of anti-China sentiment as they challenged formidably resourced pro-Beijing rivals for seats. Some backed the previously unthinkable idea of independence for Hong Kong, which has added to divisions within the broader pro-democracy movement and overshadowed the election.

 

Last month, officials disqualified six pro-independence candidates in an attempt to tamp down the debate, though other candidates with similar views made the cut.

 

Nathan Law, who helped lead the 2014 protests, looked to be one of the biggest winners. Law's party, Demosisto, which he formed with teen protest leader Joshua Wong, advocates a referendum on "self-determination" of Hong Kong's future. He was expected to win a seat in the Hong Kong Island constituency after receiving the second-highest number of votes, with 90 percent of ballots counted.

 

Voters are choosing lawmakers to fill 35 seats in geographic constituencies. Another 30 seats are taken by members representing business and trade groups such as accounting, finance, medicine and fisheries. Five more "super seats" are chosen by voters citywide.

 

At stake is the power to keep the city's widely unpopular Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, and his government in check. "Pan-democrat" lawmakers currently control 27 of 70 seats, compared with 43 held by lawmakers friendly to Beijing.

 

The democrats need to keep control of at least a third of the seats, which gives them veto power to block government attempts to enact unpopular legislation, including a possible renewed attempt to enact Beijing's controversial election revamp that triggered the 2014 street protests.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-09-05

[Publicus]

13 minutes ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

China will slowly swallow Honk Kong up and into it's system. Whether it be this year or the next. 

 

I guess Great Britain should have taken this Lease out on Hong Kong for 200 years and not just 100 years, when they had the control and power to do so. 

 

CCP in Beijing got foiled when they agreed to the UK insistence that a two-thirds majority be required in the HKG legislative council (legco) to change the Basic Law.

 

Beijing had figured the loaded electoral system it did impose would severely limit democracy to the point it would barely have a voice or be noticed. Beijing also counted on the traditional Chinese loyalty to the central authority, i.e., Beijing.

 

Bust.

 

In 2014 against all the fierce opposition of CCP in HKG and in Bejing, voters got a ballot and approved by a huge margin a remarkable referendum for universal suffrage beginning in 2017 in electing the chief executive. The existing system was/is completely controlled by Beijing.

 

This is what the Umbrella Movement has been all about, i.e., seeing the referendum result to its successful implementation. Looking at the news report above it looks positive and that the momentum is only increasing.

 

This year will be decisive.

[GOLDBUGGY]

27 minutes ago, Publicus said:

 

CCP in Beijing got foiled when they agreed to the UK insistence that a two-thirds majority be required in the HKG legislative council (legco) to change the Basic Law.

 

Beijing had figured the loaded electoral system it did impose would severely limit democracy to the point it would barely have a voice or be noticed. Beijing also counted on the traditional Chinese loyalty to the central authority, i.e., Beijing.

 

Bust.

 

In 2014 against all the fierce opposition of CCP in HKG and in Bejing, voters got a ballot and approved by a huge margin a remarkable referendum for universal suffrage beginning in 2017 in electing the chief executive. The existing system was/is completely controlled by Beijing.

 

This is what the Umbrella Movement has been all about, i.e., seeing the referendum result to its successful implementation. Looking at the news report above it looks positive and that the momentum is only increasing.

 

This year will be decisive.

China is a huge powerhouse! On paper Hong Kong now belongs to China! Sure they can let Hong Kong have there own way for a little bit, but you can be sure that China has them on a tight leash. They could wake up one morning with Chinese Tanks on the streets of Hong Kong, and the game is over.

 

I don't trust huge powerful countries and any promises they make. Germany promised not to take over any other country and then shortly afterwards they invaded Poland. Japan gave the USA a Piece Medal to sanction a long peace agreement between them, a week before they attacked Pear Harbor. Russia promised to only keep Poland long enough for them to get back on their own feet, then started building the Berlin Wall instead. They promised Independence to Ukraine and then invaded the Crimea. So lets see what happens here between China and Hong Kong.   

[Publicus]

1 minute ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

China is a huge powerhouse! On paper Hong Kong now belongs to China! Sure they can let Hong Kong have there own way for a little bit, but you can be sure that China has them on a tight leash. They could wake up one morning with Chinese Tanks on the streets of Hong Kong, and the game is over.

 

I don't trust huge powerful countries and any promises they make. Germany promised not to take over any other country and then shortly afterwards they invaded Poland. Japan gave the USA a Piece Medal to sanction a long peace agreement between them, a week before they attacked Pear Harbor. Russia promised to only keep Poland long enough for them to get back on their own feet, then started building the Berlin Wall instead. They promised Independence to Ukraine and then invaded the Crimea. So lets see what happens here between China and Hong Kong.   

 

Frankly speaking, the Dynasty of CCP Dictators in Beijing are 21st century fascists. They truly believe they've learned from the 'mistakes' of the leaders you reference in your post, and that the CCP can succeed where other tyrants  failed. CCP Dictators are just plain focking stupid.

 

CCP Dictators cannot afford another Tiananmen Square, not for its impact on the people of Hong Kong, or concerning the Chinese of the mainland, or on Taiwan, and internationally. It would set CCP back 20 years if not all the way back to the cultural revolution of Mao.

 

This election outcome shows the tougher Beijing gets the more they advance HKG democrats and their goals.

 

Nathan Law, right, with student activist Joshua

Wong. Law is guaranteed a seat on the city’s

lawmaking body after elections on Sunday.

Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

 

 

HKG had already defeated Beijing twice and now we have this. First was when Beijing in 2003 tried to impose a treason and sedition law against public protest in HKG, targeting protesters and demonstrators. Second was several years ago when Beijing tried to impose a new curriculum in HKG schools that instructed that the single party state was superior to a democratic multi-party form of government. 

 

Hongkongers as they call themselves took to the streets en masse on each occasion. That was repeated in 2014-15 in the Occupy Movement that became known as the Umbrella Movement (demonstrators used umbrellas to shield themselves from police tear gas).

 

Hongkongers throughout the territory were aghast the police had tear gassed their kids. The population was appalled by it. Beijing well knows that if they haul out their Tiananmen Square 'solution' CCP will only hasten its own isolation and demise.

 

A compromise is possible, it's just how to do it.

[elgordo38]

Come on now you cannot seriously call this an election its a coronation Beijing style. The Chinese have betraying their promise to the British when they stupidly handed Hong Kong back to China some 20 years ago. Did these idiots really believe that China would keep its word to let Hong Kong be autonomous? Chinese tenacles are reaching around the world. Some blow hard international organization stated that the Chinese had no rights to Islands in the South China Sea and China told em to go blow smoke up their patootie. China makes the rules and no one else. Look at Tibet and all the other territories they have "reclaimed" 

[williamgeorgeallen]

4 hours ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

China will slowly swallow Honk Kong up and into it's system. Whether it be this year or the next. 

 

I guess Great Britain should have taken this Lease out on Hong Kong for 200 years and not just 100 years, when they had the control and power to do so. 

yes, to all you ferangs out there leasing your houses from your bargirls for 30 years be ware.

[English 1]

This will not go away and the best action would be for Beijing to grand Independence to Honk Kong.

 

[DipStick]

Although Chinese troops are based in HK, China could destroy HK within a few weeks and not with military power. All they need to do is close the border and strangle Hong Kong of water, vegetables, meat etc. Game over.

[Publicus]

 

Medieval so it isn't beyond 'em cause they don't accept losing even when not firing a shot.

 

Anything CCP Dynasty of Dictators might do in Hong Kong would have direct impact on the population of Taiwan which due to the 2014 Sunflower Revolution got the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party elected to the presidency and their first ever majority in the parliament.

 

Umbrella Movement and Sunflower Revolution got connected which is another sharp pain at the CCP's posterior.

[phantomfiddler]

From where I sit, when a lease runs out that,s it, kaput ! Old ruler moves back in and hopefully does not pull too many nasties   As far as I am concerned any tenant who refuses to vacate (or hand over the reins) deserves to be thrown in the slammer !

[Publicus]

42 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

From where I sit, when a lease runs out that,s it, kaput ! Old ruler moves back in and hopefully does not pull too many nasties   As far as I am concerned any tenant who refuses to vacate (or hand over the reins) deserves to be thrown in the slammer !

 

Sounds like Trump's plan if he might get to move into the White House.

 

Britain's 1997 reversion of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty was a transition. It was mutually agreed. CCP is at times practical enough to know that it would have had a revolution on its hands had it mangled Hong Kong overnight in to just another CCP Chinese city. It is in fact what they're trying to do the past several years to date, and it is what they will continue to try to do.

 

Fact is CCP Dictators in Beijing signed off to Britain and to the people of HKG to make absolutely no change -- zero change -- for fifty years. CCP knew they were lying. So did the people of HKG. Brits had sounded out Beijing on introducing democracy to HKG back during the 1950s but dropped the notion when Mao said the PLA would show up. You don't know the contempt and detestation the CCP have of democracy.

 

The Umbrella Movement is led by those born at the time of the reversion of HKG to CCP sovereignty, along with the old timers of democracy in HKG and on the mainland. In fact a couple of the greybeard HKG democracy guys on the LegCo got beat yesterday by new kids on the block and said more power to 'em. The new kids speak openly of stopping the "Communist Party of China" imposing its mainland systems on HKG.

[elgordo38]

7 hours ago, GOLDBUGGY said:

China is a huge powerhouse! On paper Hong Kong now belongs to China! Sure they can let Hong Kong have there own way for a little bit, but you can be sure that China has them on a tight leash. They could wake up one morning with Chinese Tanks on the streets of Hong Kong, and the game is over.

 

I don't trust huge powerful countries and any promises they make. Germany promised not to take over any other country and then shortly afterwards they invaded Poland. Japan gave the USA a Piece Medal to sanction a long peace agreement between them, a week before they attacked Pear Harbor. Russia promised to only keep Poland long enough for them to get back on their own feet, then started building the Berlin Wall instead. They promised Independence to Ukraine and then invaded the Crimea. So lets see what happens here between China and Hong Kong.   

Sounds like the same promises made here in Thailand. Right turn Clyde.

[Publicus]

Nathan Law Kwun Cheng, 23, center, was elected yesterday to the Hong Kong Legislative Council LegCo to become the youngest member ever. He is one of three democracy "radicals" elected to LegCo after the Umbrella Movement protests against CCP of Beijing during 2014-15.

 

July 21, 2016

Student leaders (L to R) Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow were convicted for a protest that sparked major pro-democracy rallies in Hong Kong (AFP Photo/Anthony Wallace)

 

 

Joshua Wong Chi Fung, 19, at left is too young to run for office but he is familiar with the Hong Kong courts as he's been charged several times. Wong and his girlfriend were attacked recently after leaving a cinema. All three say their convictions are politically motivated.

 

Hong Kong has an independent judiciary so Magistrate June Cheung suspended what could have been a two-year sentence for Wong and Chow and a lesser time for Nathan Law. The outcome of the case allows each to run for political office.

 

"No matter what is the penalty... we will still continue to fight against suppression from the government," Wong said after the ruling.

"We know facing the largest communist regime in the world is a long-term battle for us to fight for democracy."

Political analyst Ivan Choy said the public may have an "antagonistic attitude" towards the government if the trio receive a heavy sentence, while Amnesty International said that "vague charges" against student leaders "smacked of political payback".

 

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=AwrTcdy4JM1Xaf0AWOInnIlQ;_ylc=X1MDMTM1MTE5NTY4NwRfcgMyBGZyA3locy1tb3ppbGxhLTAxMwRncHJpZANhWTBoMDVMVVIyLmZjNjJ2RFpyRVJBBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwM5BG9yaWdpbgNzZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwM0BHBxc3RyA2pvc2h1YSB3b25nBHBxc3RybAMxMQRxc3RybAMyNgRxdWVyeQNqb3NodWElMjB3b25nJTIwZ2lybGZyaWVuZAR0X3N0bXADMTQ3MzA3MjQyNgR1c2VfY2FzZQM-?p=joshua+wong+girlfriend&fr2=sa-gp-search&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-013

 

CCP in Beijing isn't going to put these boys in jail.

[Publicus]

Official final result of the Hong Kong election Sunday is that democracy candidates won the necessary one-third of the rigged election of the legislative council LegCo to veto any legislation sent down from Beijing. 

 

A principal of the 2014 protest of 79 days, Nathan Law, 23, became the youngest ever member of LegCo.

 

Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Candidates Retain Veto in Key Vote

 

Final results showed that overall, pro-democracy candidates won 30 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council, three more than previously, which means they retain the power to block government attempts to enact unpopular or controversial legislation, such as a Beijing-backed revamp of how the city’s top leader is chosen that sparked the 2014 protests.

 

In another surprising result, Yau Wai-Ching, 25, and Sixtus “Baggio” Leung, 30, of Youngspiration also secured seats. Their group was formed during the 2014 protests and proposes a similar plan as [the Nathan Law party].

 

The results are a sign “that Hong Kong people want to resist,” said Leung. “This is what Beijing should know. When we can’t trust ‘one country, two systems’ and the Basic Law to maintain the distinction between Hong Kong’s system and Beijing, then the next step, the answer is to cut things off.”

 

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2150774-2150774/

 

 

It won't happen overnight but CCP Dynasty of Dictators in Beijing know they cannot afford another Tiananmen Square massacre of young democracy demonstrators, this time in Hong Kong.

 

A fourth newcomer, land-reformer Eddie Chu and a democracy advocate won the highest vote total of all candidates in his first shot at a public office (LegCo).  “I hope to renew the democratic movement of Hong Kong,” Chu said. "That is my political goal in Hong Kong.” 

 

They are not alone. 

[sgtsabai]

As much as I hate to differ, China's CCP will do whatever they please. They do it in the China Seas, in the deliberate insult to Obama, and to anybody else. I wish all the best to the democracy movement. One has to look at not only how China has crushed democracy movement before but the swing to wackos like Trump, Duterte, Putin etc. all over the world. I doesn't bode well.