HONG KONG
Hong Kong is bracing itself for the territory’s first major political demonstration since the Umbrella protests last year, local media reported Friday.
Police have already warned organizers they could face prosecution if they fail to recruit at least 100 marshals to oversee Sunday’s march, which is expected to attract tens of thousands of supporters.
The demonstration, organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, is the first since the 79-day Umbrella protests that saw main roads blocked before sites were finally cleared in December.
Tensions have lingered since, with several leading pro-democracy figures arrested.
Organizer Daisy Chan said she expected 50,000 people to join the march to call for the local and Beijing governments to allow "genuine universal suffrage" when the chief executive election is held in 2017.
Some activists have hinted that an unauthorized sit-in could take place on Sunday night after the march. In July, an overnight pro-democracy protest ended in a sit-in that was seen as a dress rehearsal for the protests that began in late September.
While objecting to the police requirement that 100 marshals control the protest, Chan said organizers would "make best endeavors to assist the police," according to the South China Morning Post.
However, chief marshal Johnson Yeung said they “had no power to stop or control” what others planned to do.
Martin Lee, a lawyer representing organizers, said it was difficult to recruit people to supervise demonstrators for fear of arrest. He said two marshals involved in the Umbrella protests had been arrested in November after subduing three men who threw rotten meat at media tycoon Jimmy Lai, according to the newspaper.
"Even if our men are willing, their wives may not allow them," Lee said.
Organizers have so far recruited up to 70 marshals. "I don't know whether the police are going to count the number of marshals and prosecute us afterwards," Chan told the Post.
Seven pro-democracy groups – including the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism, two of the Umbrella Movement’s leading groups – are supporting the march.
Scholarism spokesman Oscar Lai said he knew some groups might be interested in "follow-up actions" on Sunday night and his group might consider joining peaceful actions.
