2014-06-20
A Hong Kong colonial flag is seen waved by a demonstrator during a protest against plans for a new town development outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, June 20, 2014.
AFP
More than 400,000 Hong Kong residents ignored warnings from Beijing and voted for full democracy in the former British colony in an unofficial referendum on democratic reform launched Friday.
By midnight Hong Kong time, 404,834 people had cast their votes via an online voting system, the Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a mass movement fighting for “genuine” universal suffrage in the special Chinese territory, told Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper.
The number of participants appears to have outstripped expectations. Organizers had said before the mostly online vote opened that they were hoping for 300,000 people to participate in total, reports have said.
The Occupy ballot asks respondents to choose between three different options for the selection of candidates in the 2017 race for Hong Kong chief executive, all of which involve some form of public nomination.
Beijing said Friday that any referendum in Hong Kong on how to elect its leader would “not have constitutional grounds” and would be “illegal and invalid,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.
From: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/hongkong-06202014131543.html