A motion to remove the city’s Beijing-backed chief executive, Carrie Lam, failed to pass in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Thursday, as it was rejected by pro-Beijing lawmakers, local broadcaster RTHK said.
Thirty-six lawmakers voted against the impeachment motion while 26 voted for it, RTHK reported.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong authorities granted protesters permission to hold a big march Sunday, organisers said on Thursday, December 05, showing support to the pro-democracy movement following the right wing’s sweeping victory in local elections.
The Civil Human Rights Front, the group that organised million-strong marches in Hong Kong in June, said it had received permission from police for a planned Sunday Human Rights Day rally.
During the past six months of increasingly violent anti-government demonstrations, the authorities had denied requests from the group to hold rallies.
Some calm has descended since the November 24 district elections, when pro-democracy candidates won nearly 90 percent of the seats.
The protests were sparked by a controversial Extradition Bill, since withdrawn, and have swelled into broader calls for greater democratic freedoms.
The months of unrest have posed the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012.
While backing Lam, the leader of the biggest pro-Beijing party – the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) – also criticised her administration, saying it had been unable to prevent “violence unleashed by rioters”, the broadcaster said. (Source: The Straits Times)