Hong Kong’s opposition Democratic Party will set up a special task force to discuss steps to disband, party chair Lo Kin-hei has announced, three decades after the political party was established.
The three-member task force would handle legal and financial matters relating to the dissolution and liquidation of the pro-democracy party, Lo told reporters on Thursday evening, following a two-hour meeting with the party’s executive committee.
Lo himself is in the task force, as well as the party’s vice chairperson Mok Kin-shing and executive committee member Leung Wing-kuen.
The motion to dissolve the city’s largest pro-democracy party will be subject to a vote by party members in a general meeting, Lo said. The 400-strong party will officially disband if more than three-quarters of party members attending the general meeting support the motion.
Lo, however, did not disclose any time frame, including when the general meeting would be held.
“Developing democracy in Hong Kong is always difficult, especially in the past few years,” he told journalists. “We see a lot of civil society groups or political parties disbanding or dissolving.”
“I still believe Hong Kong people can find their ways to keep on fighting for what Hong Kong people think is best,” Lo said, adding that the committee had considered the “overall political environment” in making its decision on Thursday.
Lo did not comment on whether the party was “under pressure” to dissolve. He also did not give a direct answer when asked how the 10 executive committee members present at the meeting voted.
The Thursday announcement came a day after Lo said that the executive committee would convene and they would not rule out discussion on potentially disbanding.
Several local news outlets reported late Tuesday night that the party, founded in 1994, was set to discuss its potential disbandment this week.
Lo said on Wednesday that the party had indeed talked about disbanding in recent years following the dissolution of other civil society groups.
“Over the past few years we see a lot of different groups and parties – all sorts of different civil society groups – dissolving… So every time, whenever any of those kinds of groups disband or discontinue, we will have that kind of discussion,” he said Wednesday, in response to an HKFP question.
Lo, who was re-elected in December, said at that time that the party still represents “a slice of residents” but acknowledged that its influence had waned.
Multiple members of the party have been jailed or detained over national security offences, including Helena Wong and Lam Cheuk-ting, as well as former chairs Wu Chi-wai and Albert Ho.
