Activist investor David Webb has launched an online voting campaign to push true democracy in Hong Kong. Photo: HKEJ
David Webb launches online petition to press HK political reform
David Webb, a leading activist investor, has launched an online voting campaign to press the Hong Kong government to submit a new report on political reform to Beijing.
“HK has waited too long for true democracy. The National People’s Congress Standing Committee has proposed fake democracy with candidates needing 50 percent approval of the Nominating Committee,” the former investment banker noted.
By Friday afternoon, the campaign has attracted 572 signatures, nearly half of its targeted 1,200 votes.
Webb urged chief executive Leung Chun-ying to send a new report to the NPC Standing Committee, restoring the nomination threshold to one-eighth of the committee, instead of 50 percent.
That will allow candidates to run for the chief executive poll in 2017 without being pre-elected, and facilitate up to eight candidates to join the race, he said.
Leung must also table local legislation to abolish corporate voting for the Nomination Committee and the Legislative Council in 2016 and make them both more democratic, he added.
Webb, 49, is a shareholder activist who has lived in Hong Kong since 1991. On Oct. 10, he gave a speech to Occupy protesters in Admiralty, saying that Hong Kong people will ultimately win their fight for democracy. He said people should not worry about the small economic impact of their movement because its larger outcome will benefit Hong Kong in a more dynamic economy.
In a separate development, 197,001 people signed up for a petition with US President Obama, calling on the US government to prevent “a second Tiananmen Massacre” in Hong Kong.
The White House responded that it is “watching the situation in Hong Kong closely.”
“The United States supports universal suffrage in Hong Kong in accordance with the Basic Law and we support the aspirations of the Hong Kong people,” it said.
[David Webb's online voting campaign]
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