Tibet, January 01: Thousands of democracy campaigners took to the streets on the first day of the new year to call for universal suffrage and the release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Chanting slogans and holding placards, protesters marched through the city centre to the Central Government Liaison Office, responsible for ties with Beijing.
The march was watched over by hundreds of police officers and attracted the attention of big crowds of pedestrians.
Police estimated there were about 4,600 protesters but organisers put the number higher.
“I don’t want fake democracy. I want genuine universal suffrage,” Lee Cheuk-yan, lawmaker and general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, chanted through a loudspeaker.
The Hong Kong government last month unveiled a proposal to increase the sizes of both the legislature and the committee responsible for electing the city’s chief executive.
But the plan fell short of the expectations of pro-democracy politicians, who have urged the government to introduce universal suffrage in 2012.
Beijing has indicated that universal suffrage “may be implemented for the Chief Executive in 2017 and the Legislative Council in 2020”.
“The large turnout today has sent the strongest signal to Beijing that we need a clear road map for universal suffrage,” Wong Yuk-man, another lawmaker and a leader of the League of Social Democrats, told AFP.
Protesters also urged Chinese authorities to release Liu Xiaobo, who was sentenced by a Beijing court last Friday to 11 years in prison for subversion, prompting strong condemnation from the international community, including the United States, the European Union and Canada.
—Agencies