Hong Kong vetoes China-backed electoral reform proposal

 

Most pro-government politicians stage a walkout as the controversial election reform bill was headed for defeat.

Hong Kong politicians have voted down election reforms as pro-democracy politicians united to reject the controversial Beijing-backed reforms.

Hundreds of Beijing supporters had converged outside government buildings on Thursday as city legislators voted on the electoral package that aimed to define the Chinese-controlled city’s democratic future.

Most pro-government politicians staged a walkout on Thursday as the bill headed for defeat, with just eight casting their vote in support of the package and 28 voting against it. One legislator did not cast a vote, which happened earlier than expected, with only 37 of the legislature’s 70 legislators present.

The government’s reform proposal would have given all residents the right to vote for the chief executive in 2017 for the first time, but it also adhered to a Chinese government ruling that candidates must be vetted by a loyalist committee.

The plan was derided as “fake democracy” by opposition legislators, who pledged to vote against it and deny the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. (Reuters)