15 pan-democrats sign up for talks on political reform with Beijing officials
But lawmakers reiterate that minor concessions will not sway them on 2017 reform vote in Legco
Fifteen pan-democrats have signed up for talks with Beijing officials in Shenzhen on Sunday in a last-ditch move to narrow the divide with the central government on political reform.
The response from the pan-democratic camp was more positive than a meeting with Beijing officials in Shanghai in April last year, when only 10 pan-democrats turned up. In August last year, 15 pan-democrat lawmakers attended a similar meeting in Shenzhen.
However, the pan-democrats reiterated that minor concessions would not sway them from voting down the government's reform package, which follows a stringent framework imposed by Beijing last August.
It ruled that when Hong Kong elects its leader by "one man, one vote" for the first time in 2017, the public must choose from two or three candidates endorsed by the majority of a 1,200-strong nominating committee.
The government needs the support of at least four pan-democrats for the proposal to be approved in Legco next month.
Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said the camp hoped officials would explain "how to make sure Hong Kong people would have genuine universal suffrage and a genuine choice of chief executive candidates".
