Hong Kong's biggest pro-democracy party gets mandate to move closer to disbandment

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's biggest pro-democracy party on Sunday received its members' mandate to proceed with steps toward a potential disbandment, part of the erosion of political freedoms as China cracks down on dissent in the southern city.

Democratic Party Chairman Lo Kin-hei said over 90% of the members who took part in the vote supported the motion to let the central committee take up the procedure toward disbandment. He said he hopes there will be a final vote in the coming months.

“Unless there is a big change, I believe this inclination will be maintained in the next general meeting,” he said, adding that the party would continue with its work until then. The process might not finish this year, said vice chair Mok Kin-shing.

The party’s decision reflects the dwindling semi-autonomy and freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to China’s rule in 1997. The moderate political party has effectively become a pressure group, members say.

Lo earlier said the decision was made based on the current political situation and social climate. Party veterans told The Associated Press that some members were warned of consequences if the party didn't shut down.

Massive anti-government protests in 2019 led China to impose a sweeping national security law that was used to prosecute many leading activists. Some of the party's former lawmakers are now in prison, and the party has been absent from elections after authorities overhauled the electoral system to ensure only “patriots” can run.

The Democratic Party, founded in 1994, is one of the few remaining pro-democracy groups that still speak out from time to time following the closure of dozens of civil society groups under the shadow of the security law. They include the city’s once second-largest pro-democracy party and a decades-old group that organized the annual vigil to commemorate Beijing’s Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.

The party had long positioned itself as a moderate pro-democracy force. Some of its former members joined the government as senior officials. Its willingness to negotiate with Beijing led to its proposal being included in a 2010 political reform package — a move that drew harsh criticism from some members and other democracy advocates who wanted more sweeping changes.

Prominent party members include Martin Lee, nicknamed the city’s “father of democracy,” Albert Ho, former leader of the group that organized Tiananmen vigils, and journalist-turned-activist Emily Lau.

Lau and former lawmaker Fred Li were among the members who attended Sunday's meeting. Lo said about 110 members voted in person or through proxies.

Former chairman Yeung Sum said it was a pity that the party was preparing to disband. He said he believed the “one country, two systems” is the most viable system for the city under Beijing's rule. Hong Kong's open society and pluralistic culture under the relative democratic political system is beneficial to the future of the local community and China's economic development, he said.

He believes Hong Kongers who tasted an open political system and the rule of law would not give it up.

“The political culture and the fight for democracy will carry on in Hong Kong in a peaceful and relational manner,” he said.

Lo Kin-hei, left, chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party and Mok Kin-shing, vice chairman, pose for photographs at a press conference at the office of Hong Kong's Democratic Party in Hong Kong on Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Lo Kin-hei, center, chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party and Mok Kin-shing, center right, vice chairman, arrive at a press conference at the office of Hong Kong's Democratic Party in Hong Kong on Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Lo Kin-hei, chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, poses for photographs at a press conference at the office of Hong Kong's Democratic Party in Hong Kong on Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Lo Kin-hei, left, chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party and Mok Kin-shing, vice chairman, pose for photographs at a press conference at the office of Hong Kong's Democratic Party in Hong Kong on Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Lo Kin-hei, chairman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, speaks at a press conference at the office of Hong Kong's Democratic Party in Hong Kong on Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Emily Lau, former chairperson of the Democratic Party, closes the door to the Democratic Party's office in Prince Edward in Hong Kong on April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/May James)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaragua’s Interior Ministry said Saturday the country would release dozens of prisoners, as the United States ramped up pressure on leftist President Daniel Ortegaa week after it ousted former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Nicaragua said Venezuela had taken an important step toward peace by releasing what it described as “political prisoners.” But it lamented that in Nicaragua, “more than 60 people remain unjustly detained or disappeared, including pastors, religious workers, the sick, and the elderly.”

On Saturday, the Interior Ministry said in a statement that “dozens of people who were in the National Penitentiary System are returning to their homes and families.”

It wasn’t immediately clear who was freed and under what conditions. Nicaragua’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The government has been carrying out an ongoing crackdown since mass social protests in 2018, that were violently repressed.

Nicaragua’s government has imprisoned adversaries, religious leaders, journalists and more, then exiled them, stripping hundreds of their Nicaraguan citizenship and possessions. Since 2018, it has shuttered more than 5,000 organizations, largely religious, and forced thousands to flee the country. Nicaragua’s government often accused critics and opponents of plotting against the government.

In recent years, the government has released hundreds of imprisoned political opponents, critics and activists. It stripped them of Nicaraguan citizenship and sent them to other countries like the U.S. and Guatemala. Observers have called it an effort to wash its hands of its opposition and offset international human rights criticism. Many of those Nicaraguans were forced into a situation of "statelessness."

Saturday on X, the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs again slammed Nicaragua’s government. “Nicaraguans voted for a president in 2006, not for an illegitimate lifelong dynasty,” it said. “Rewriting the Constitution and crushing dissent will not erase the Nicaraguans’ aspirations to live free from tyranny.”

Danny Ramírez-Ayérdiz, executive-secretary of the Nicaraguan human rights organization CADILH, said he had mixed feelings about the releases announced Saturday.

“On the one hand, I’m glad. All political prisoners suffer some form of torture. But on the other hand, I know these people will continue to be harassed, surveilled and monitored by the police, and so will their families.”

Ramírez-Ayérdiz said the liberation of the prisoners is a response to pressure exerted by the United States. “There is surely a great deal of fear within the regime that the U.S. might completely dismantle it,” he said.

FILE - Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega waves after attending the swearing-in ceremony of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro for a third term at the National Assembly in Caracas, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)