On Sunday, a coalition of civil and political groups in Hong
Kong launched a signature campaign in support of the special
administrative region's government's constitutional reform package,
which is due to be voted on by its Legislative Council on December
21.
Members of the Grand Coalition Concerning Political Reform,
consisting of 11 groups, collected signatures at 700 sites
At one of them, Cheng Yiu-tong, president of the Federation of
Trade Unions, signed his name on a large cloth banner that read:
"Support Constitutional Reform Plan, Marching Toward Universal
Suffrage."
Cheng said the campaign aimed to express a desire to deal with
the adoption of the constitutional reform package and a timetable
for universal suffrage separately.
Thousands had reportedly also joined an online signature
campaign at the websites of three Chinese-language newspapers,
Wen Wei Po, Ta Kung Pao and Sing Tao
Daily, on Saturday.
The coalition said it expected to collect more than 200,000
signatures over two weeks.
The constitutional reform package, on selection methods for the
Chief Executive in 2007 and Legislative Council in 2008, was
published by the Hong Kong government in October.
(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2005)