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Peter So

No blueprint on electoral reform will be retabled within 10 years if pan-democrats can maintain the power to vote it down as the critical minority in the legislature after the 2016 Legislative Council elections, warned a pro-business political party chief.

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A veteran unionist and ringleader of the 1967 deadly leftist riots who controversially received the city's highest honour died yesterday at the age of 89.

Public opinion on the plans for electoral reform is effectively even as any difference in the rolling polls conducted by three of the city's universities falls within the latest survey's margin of error.

Hongkongers are expected to enjoy an extra day off work this year after Beijing announced that September 3 will be a one-off national holiday to mark the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender in the second world war.

Infectious disease specialist turned politician Dr Lo Wing-lok has died at the age of 60 after losing his fight against lung cancer.

A high-powered delegation of visiting US lawmakers have assured Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying face-to-face that the United States did not have any role in last year's Occupy Central protests.

The Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times has hit out at the Chinese University students' union for opposing a planned visit to the Sha Tin campus by troops from the People's Liberation Army's Hong Kong garrison.

The level of support for the government's 2017 political reform package has changed little despite an all-out effort by officials to promote it in the past two weeks.

A pro-Beijing group that last year circulated a petition against the Occupy movement will stage a city-wide signature campaign next week in an attempt to put pressure on pan-democrats to support the government's electoral reform package.

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was accused yesterday of hijacking a rally organised by the city's biggest labour union to promote the government's political reform package.

A close look at a new Basic Law teaching kit for secondary schools has thrown up more questionable elements, this time over its placement of the city under Beijing's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in a chart illustrating ties between the city and the central government.

Beijing's liaison office may have breached the Basic Law by "meddling in Hong Kong's internal affairs", after it apparently asked a pro-establishment party to join a publicity blitz promoting the government's electoral reform package.

The city's biggest political party, the pro-establishment DAB, needs to groom more talent and strengthen its policy research so that it might put up its own candidate for chief executive in future, the party's new chairwoman told the South China Morning Post yesterday.

Increased violence against journalists and cyberattacks on news websites have led to a further decline in Hong Kong's press freedom, says a US report.

Fewer than half of respondents interviewed by three universities support the government proposal for the 2017 chief executive election.

The alliance that organises the vigil to commemorate the Tiananmen crackdown says the departure of the Federation of Students will not hurt the attendance at its event.

The Executive Council convenor says he does not expect the public to reach a consensus on the government's electoral reform package any time soon, as opinions are likely to remain divided up until the legislature votes on it in late June.

Mobilising public opinion will not be enough to force pan-democrats to support electoral reform, as the crux of the issue is whether they are willing to forge a consensus with Beijing, a mainland expert on Hong Kong affairs says.

The battle to win over the public is set to heat up, as opponents and supporters of the government's package for the 2017 chief executive poll put maximum effort into reaching out to Hongkongers over the next two months.

The so-called super-seat lawmakers freely admit they can't always give their full attention to community affairs.