2014-08-18
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A woman takes part in a pro-government rally in Hong Kong, Aug. 17, 2014.
AFP
Democracy activists in Hong Kong on Monday accused police in the former British colony of inflating the number of participants at a weekend demonstration opposing plans for an “Occupy Central” movement, which has threatened mass civil disobedience if China doesn’t offer the city a real choice in the next election for its leader.
Police said the number of protesters at Sunday’s pro-Beijing march for “peace and democracy” had reached 111,800, in sharp contrast to the University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Programme’s estimate of no more than 88,000.
Organizers of the demonstration claimed nearly 200,000 people participated in the demonstration aimed at opposing the Occupy Central campaign, which has vowed to take over Hong Kong’s downtown financial and shopping district if voters are denied public nominations in the 2017 race for the next chief executive.
The pro-Beijing rally was intended to counter the city’s July 1 pro-democracy rally, which organizers said was participated in by some 500,000 people, against a police head count of just 92,000.
League of Social Democrats member Tsang Kin Shing said the police reporting of the numbers seemed highly skewed in favor of the pro-Beijing camp.
“The police greatly under-reported the numbers at the July 1 demonstration, but they over-reported the numbers at the anti-Occupy Central rally,” Tsang told RFA on Monday.
“If we are really divided into pro-Occupy and anti-Occupy movements, then Chief Executive C.Y. Leung should hold a referendum, and allow seven million Hong Kong people to decide the issue,” he said.
Some local television footage showed groups of “protesters” leaving soon after the main march left Victoria Park, while other shots showed participants receiving money from unidentified people.
Anti-Occupy activist Robert Chow said the Alliance for Peace and Democracy, which organized the march, would investigate the allegations.
“We will be carrying out a detailed investigation to find out exactly what went on here,” Chow told reporters, adding that the numbers belonging to the group suspected of taking payments would be deducted from the overall count.
Pro-Beijing march
Some 1,170 pro-Beijing groups and politicians signed up for the rally, including Regina Ip from the New People’s Party, and Tam Yiu-chung and Starry Lee from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, local media reported.
