Both Leung and Lam stressed that if the reform proposal were vetoed it could be years before the city has another chance at universal suffrage. “It must happen in 2017,” Lam said, using the government’s latest catchphrase to support the plan.

Just four of the city’s pro-universal-suffrage lawmakers, known as pan-democrats, need to vote for the process for it to pass—but they all pledged in March to vote against it. As the proposal was introduced today, all of these lawmakers except one displayed a yellow “x” signaling they would reject it:

During Lam’s speech, she was heckled by pan-democrats. After she finished, they walked out, with the exception of one, Ronny Tong.

Protests are now inevitable, some say, setting the stage for a long, hot summer of political upheaval in Hong Kong.

Pan-democrats are outnumbered in Hong Kong’s legislative branch, which has 70 total seats, although they hold 27 of the 40 seats that are democratically elected. The remaining 30 seats are elected by “functional constituencies” made up of business people and industry representatives.

Hong Kong chief executive C.Y. Leung said in an interview last year that the city has too many poor people to have direct elections, and allowing them all to vote would result in “that kind of politics and policies.” Lam’s comments Wednesday echoed this view of a Hong Kong electorate that was not sophisticated enough for a truly free choice:

Hong Kong University will conduct telephone polls to gauge Hongkongers’ reactions after today’s speech.

This article originally stated that Hong Kong University’s public opinion poll would be conducted online, not by telephone.

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