Benny Tai, of pro-democracy group Occupy Central, and Hong Kong student leaders Alex Chow, Joshua Wong and Alan Leong, of the Civic Party attend a press conference at the pro-democracy protesters camp site in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong on Sunday.
AFP/Hong Kong
Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters were on Sunday forced to suspend 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.
Four weeks after tens of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the streets demanding free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous Chinese city, protesters remain stubbornly encamped across several major road junctions.
But the crowds have shrunk dramatically and their leaders have struggled to decide how to keep up the momentum.
With Beijing insisting that candidates for the 2017 vote must be vetted by a loyalist committee - an arrangement the protesters deride as "fake democracy - there is no end to the stalemate in sight.
The vote by mobile phone had been set to take place on Sunday and Monday evening to gauge protesters' opinions on what their next moves should be.
But just hours before voting was due to begin, protest leaders told reporters they had been forced to postpone it because of differing views on how it should be carried out.
"We decided to adjourn the vote... but it doesn't mean the movement has stopped," said Benny Tai of prominent pro-democracy group Occupy Central, adding it was a "very difficult decision to make".
Organisers bowed in apology for disappointing supporters of a movement that has come to be known as the "umbrella revolution", after the umbrellas wielded by demonstrators in the face of police tear gas.
"There have been a lot of conflicts and different opinions," student leader Alex Chow told reporters.
Organisers refused to be drawn on the nature of the disagreements, but Chow said there had been concerns over how to verify that only protesters took part in the vote, amid worries that opponents might try to hijack the process.
The vote had been due to take place at the three protest camps that have sprung up across Hong Kong. It would have asked demonstrators how to respond to conciliatory measures offered by Hong Kong's government.
With frustration growing among residents after a month of traffic mayhem caused by the protests, and sporadic clashes breaking out with police and opponents, the pro-democracy movement is under growing pressure to decide where it is headed next.
More than a thousand protesters gathered on Sunday at the main protest camp in Admiralty outside government headquarters, listening to speeches at the colourful tent city that has sprung up on the highway there.
The protests come as one of the biggest challenges to Beijing's authority since the Tiananmen protests of 1989.
