Organizers yesterday urged Hong Kong’s government to take seriously an unofficial referendum on democratic reform after nearly 800,000 people voted in the territory, but state media in Beijing dismissed the ballot as unpatriotic.
The poll organized by pro-democracy activists that closed late on Sunday saw more than 780,000 people voting on how Hong Kong’s next leader should be chosen, days before a planned massive protest for greater democracy in the territory.
About 88 percent urged the territory’s lawmakers to veto any political reforms that do not meet “international standards.”
Photo: Reuters
The number of voters represents almost a quarter of the 3.47 million registered voters in 2012.
“The Hong Kong government should take seriously the views of nearly 800,000 citizens,” referendum organizer Benny Tai (戴耀廷) told a radio program yesterday.
The ballot was organized by a group called Occupy Central, which threatens a mass sit-in in the Central district later this year unless authorities come up with acceptable electoral reforms.
Chinese state media slammed the referendum as unpatriotic and driven by “political paranoia,” while the territory’s government said it “respected” people’s views.
“The basic political requirement for Hong Kong’s chief executive is that they must love both the country and Hong Kong. The opposition has refused to accept this requirement,” the Global Times said in an editorial.
“Some people have become frenzied. They seem civilized and rational, but their political paranoia is about to light a fuse,” the editorial added.
The China Daily called the poll an “unconstitutional political charade” and accused the US of funding its organizers.
Beijing has promised to let Hong Kong residents elect their next chief executive in 2017, but has ruled out giving voters a say in selecting candidates.
The winning proposal, offered by the Alliance for True Democracy, would allow the public or democratically elected lawmakers to nominate candidates.
Organizers of today’s rally and march, marking the July 1 anniversary of the transfer of sovereignty, expect it to be the largest since the handover with at least 500,000 people expected.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS