Hong Kong protests in disarray as vote on next move scrapped

'We feel we have been conducting the vote hastily,' said one of the organisers, Benny Tai. 'There is not enough deliberation...but it doesn't mean the movement has stopped.'

Cutout pictures of Chinese president Xi Jinping were given out as a souvenir at the occupied areas by the protesters outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong's Admiralty on October 26, 2014. TShow more

HONG KONG // Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters were on Sunday forced to call off a planned vote on their next steps – hours before it was due to begin – due to differing opinions about how to move their month-long campaign forward.

“We feel we have been conducting the vote hastily,” Benny Tai, a co-founder of the Occupy Central protest group said. “There is not enough deliberation.”

“We decided to adjourn the vote at the square but it doesn’t mean the movement has stopped,” he said.

Organisers did not rule out rescheduling the vote, but were unable to say when it might take place or what it would be about.

The vote by mobile phone had been set to take place on Sunday and Monday to gauge opinions on how demonstrators should respond to conciliatory measures offered by the government in a bid to end their mass sit-ins, which have paralysed several parts of the territory.

Hong Kong’s government made tentative concessions to the protesters during talks last Tuesday, saying they would file a report to Beijing about recent events and suggesting that both sides set up a committee to discuss further political reform beyond 2017.

Voting protesters were to set be asked two questions about how to respond to the government offers.

Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents spilled onto the streets in late September to protest Beijing’s refusal to grant free leadership elections to the former British colony. It insists that candidates for the 2017 vote must be vetted by a pro-China committee.

* Agence France-Presse