Carrie Lam says poll peace voice against violence

HONG KONG - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Tuesday thanked residents of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) for orderly voting on Sunday despite a relatively volatile environment and said she hoped the peace at the weekend was a voice by people against violence.

Lam was speaking to reporters ahead of the customary weekly Executive Council meeting, a day after poll results showed oposition candidates secured almost 90 percent of 452 district council seats in Sunday's election.

She said pro-establishment parties will continue to serve the public with dedication.

Lam appealed to a handful of protesters who have still kept barricaded themselves in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to leave the campus peacefully.

A majority of protesters has left since police sealed off the area last Sunday.

Pictures circulating online show that the campus is getting increasing unhygienic. One picture depicted worms crawling on leftover food kept at a corner of a canteen.

Lam told reporters that police have established a security task force to resolve the impasse. School principals, social workers and psychologists are part of the group.

Lam said that police would prefer officials of the university to resolve the standoff.

On Tuesday morning, PolyU Vice-President Alexander Wai Ping-kong entered the campus with a 50-member team comprising teaching staff, security guards and paramedics. They planned to locate the protesters, give them medical aid, and persuade them to leave.

According to police, as of Monday, nearly 1,100 people had left the campus peacefully, including around 300 minors.