Hong Kong's largest opposition party dissolves

TT

Published 13.09

 

Lo Kin-hei, chairman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, held a press conference after the vote. Photo: Chan Long Hei/AP/TT

Hong Kong's largest and oldest pro-democracy party, the Democratic Party, has formally decided in a vote that the party should be dissolved after more than 30 years.

The decision was made due to the political situation, and about 97 percent of the members voted in favor of the dissolution, party chairman Lo Kin-hei said at a press conference.

The Democratic Party, founded in 1994, was an opposition party that fought for decades for universal suffrage in the election of the city's leaders.

Since China imposed a national security law in June 2020, following massive anti-government protests the previous year, the political opposition in the city has been marginalized and many democracy advocates have been imprisoned or fled abroad.