Student leader urges pan-democrats to step up Occupy action as injunction extended

A student protest leader has urged pan-democratic politicians to step up their involvement with the Occupy Central movement, including leading further dialogue with the government and setting up a referendum.

Alex Chow Yong-kang made the plea a month into the protests, as the High Court kept in place injunctions against protesters and the boss of the stock exchange added his voice to calls for the activists to go home.

"I do hope the pan-democratic lawmakers can take up the role for dialogue," said Chow, who joined last week's talks with officials as Federation of Students leader. "They don't need students' endorsement and as elected legislators they have legitimate claims to make a request for talks to the government."

In an interview with the Post, Chow said the federation was not keen on taking part in further talks itself after the first meeting a week ago failed to bear fruit.

Officials rejected a demand made by students during the talks that Hong Kong ask the national legislature to withdraw its August decision to set strict limits on nominations for the 2017 chief executive election. The officials would only agree to send a supplementary report to Beijing to reflect public sentiment.

"It is a division of labour," Chow said of the idea of politicians leading the talks. "If politicians can steer the talk, students can focus on communicating to protesters in the streets and understanding their demands."

He said how long the occupation went on for would depend on the stamina of the protesters and whether the government made concessions on reform.