With barely three weeks to go before 1,194 members of the Election Committee choose the next chief executive on March 26, it is almost a foregone conclusion that former chief secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor will land the top job.
Article 33 of the Hong Kong Basic Law states that the right to self-determination is guaranteed by the two international human rights conventions. The people of Hong Kong cannot take their rights for granted. In Switzerland the threshold for a referendum is only 50,000 citizens, giving people the option of voicing their opinion in a referendum rather than taking to the streets. The people should have the right to stage a referendum on any public issue. See the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development / Global Unity Constitutional Standards.