Hong Kong Protest over Chief Executive Election
Thousands of pro-democracy activists took to the streets of Hong Kong Saturday demanding universal suffrage and expressing anger at the city's system of choosing its chief executive.
The protesters walked through the center of the southern Chinese city to government headquarters, brandishing banners and chanting slogans including "no small circle election" and "give me direct elections", local TV news showed.
Police said some 3,000 people demonstrated, while protesters put the figure at 5,000.
A 1,200-member electoral committee packed with pro-Beijing social and business elites will choose Hong Kong's next chief executive on March 25, replacing Donald Tsang whose term is expiring in June.
The demonstrators also protested against Tsang, who apologized this week and pledged to cooperate with an anti-corruption probe into his alleged ties to rich tycoons after revelations of his jaunts on private jets and yachts.
The controversy "illustrates the ridiculousness of this 'small circle election' because Hong Kong people have no right to choose their own chief executive," Civil Human Rights Front spokesman and march organizer Eric Lai told Agence France Presse.
"It is undemocratic that the chief executive will be elected by only 1,200 people although Hong Kong has a population of seven million people. We want universal suffrage now," he said.
The controversy surrounding Tsang comes amid rising anger among many Hong Kongers over an electoral system they see as tilted in favor of a small group of China-backed business tycoons.
Henry Tang, seen as Beijing's preferred candidate to become Hong Kong's next chief executive, has come under heavy pressure to quit the race after the discovery of an illegal underground entertainment den at his home.
Polls have shown Tang's popularity falling but public opinion counts for little under Hong Kong's "One Country Two Systems" set-up with mainland China.
Under the system, the former British colony enjoys broad freedoms but does not get to choose its own leader by popular vote.
Source: Agence France Presse
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