Hong Kong: The Civic Party, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy groups, voted to disband due to a leadership vacuum.
Nicknamed “the barristers’ party”, it was founded in 2006 by professional elites – mostly from the legal sector – who wanted to promote democratisation and civil society in Hong Kong.
On Saturday, 30 of 31 members at the party’s extraordinary general assembly voted to voluntarily wind up operations – a process that would take about a month to complete.
“After all the final procedures, the Civic Party will disappear from Earth,” said chairman Alan Leong.
The 65-year-old party co-founder is a well-known pro-democracy figure to Hong Kongers who came of age after the city’s 1997 handover from Britain.
At its peak of popularity, the Civic Party was the second-largest group in the city’s opposition camp – pocketing six seats in Hong Kong’s half-elected legislature in 2012. But by the end of 2021, the Civic Party lost all its five seats in Hong Kong’s legislature. — AFP
