Lau Kong-wah, Edward Yau in dialogue line-up

Home Affairs Secretary Lau Kong-wah also helped represent the government at talks with Occupy student leaders in 2014. File photo: RTHK

Government officials Lau Kong-wah, Edward Yau, Sophia Chan and Patrick Nip will be joining Chief Executive Carrie Lam for a dialogue session with members of the public on Thursday night, sources have told RTHK.



The event at Wan Chai's Queen Elizabeth Stadium is aimed at soothing tensions as Hong Kong's unrest stretches into a fourth month, with 150 people to be selected at random from the 20,000 or so that applied to take part.



Lau, the city's home affairs secretary, also took part in Occupy crisis talks with student leaders in 2014, although he remained silent throughout the two-hour session.



Yau, who is now commerce and development secretary, was also at the 2014 meeting along with Lam, who was chief secretary at the time.



Former TVB journalist Kenneth Ng, a political assistant to constitutional and mainland affairs chief Nip, is tipped to be the moderator for Thursday's two-hour session which will begin at 7pm.



Not all of the 150 attendees will actually get the chance to speak. Those who are chosen at random to talk will be limited to three minutes.



Lam has said that she hopes the session will be peaceful, rational and calm, and no matter how tough the discussions are, further meetings will be arranged in the future.



Critics say the talks are unlikely to resolve the city's turmoil when protesters have been making their demands clear for months now.