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The movement, kick-started by students on Sept. 26, swelled following weekend clashes with riot police who used tear gas to disperse crowds. Student leaders said today that the protests would spread if their demands aren’t met for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to resign and for the government in Beijing to drop plans to control the 2017 leadership election.

The government has pulled anti-riot police off the streets with officers standing off to avoid the clashes of Sept. 28 that angered demonstrators. The benchmark Hang Seng Index dipped again, marking its biggest two-day decline since February.

Roads leading into the Admiralty district, where protesters have surrounded the government headquarters, continued to be blocked with workers commuting by foot and metro. Crowds this evening are also gathering at the popular shopping districts of Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.

“This movement is to achieve universal suffrage and get the National People’s Congress to take back their decision,” Alex Chow, one of the student leaders, said at a press conference Tuesday. “Yet we see that CY Leung doesn’t seem to be communicating with the top and with the people and he doesn’t understand what democracy is. So to achieve democracy, we must start with asking Leung to step down.”

When asked at a press conference today whether he would resign, Leung said that “any personnel changes” would result in the existing election committee choosing his successor, rather than through a vote.