Sawt Falasteen - Members of Hong Kong's Democratic Party approve plan to disband

The party is the latest Hong Kong civil society group to meet its end amid a years-long political crackdown, with scores of activists arrested, jailed or in exile.

The vote "means most of our members are willing to allow the Central Committee to take steps to dissolve the party", said Lo Kin-hei, chair of the 30-year-old party that was once the city's stalwart opposition force.

"This is not the final decision that the party is dissolving," Lo told a news conference.

"In the coming few months, I hope there will be another general meeting (where) we actually will get that motion into debate and vote."

Lo declined to comment on media reports that Beijing is exerting pressure on the group via middlemen to shut down the party before December's legislative elections.

More than 90 percent of the 110 or so attendees supported the motion to let party leaders deal with the procedures required for dissolution, such as accounting requirements.

The liquidation of the party, which is registered as a Hong Kong company, may not be completed within the year, said vice-chair Mok Kin-shing.

"Even if we hand over the matter to a liquidator, it is not something that can be dealt with quickly," Mok said.

Lo said in February the disbandment was due to Hong Kong's "overall political environment" but declined to say if the group had come under pressure from Beijing.

The party was not experiencing financial stress, he said at the time.

A vote to dissolve the party will require the support of 75 percent of meeting participants.

- Behind bars -

The Democratic Party was founded in 1994, near the end of British colonial rule, when Hong Kong's leading liberal groups merged.

Its top concern was determining how the city would eventually elect its own leader and lawmakers through universal suffrage as promised in China's "One Country, Two Systems" model.

Beijing tightened its grip on the Chinese finance hub after massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.

The group holds no elected seats after its lawmakers resigned en masse in 2020 in protest.

Four party lawmakers were jailed last year for subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

Former party leader Albert Ho is behind bars pending trial for national security charges that could see him jailed for life.

Hong Kong's second-largest opposition group, the Civic Party, closed its doors in 2023.

F.Qawasmeh--SF-PST