Beijing firm on HK electoral reforms
Print Edition
CHINA’S top legislature said yesterday that its decision on Hong Kong’s electoral reforms announced last August will remain in force in the future, despite the Hong Kong Legislative Council’s veto of a universal suffrage motion.
“The direction toward universal suffrage and the legal principles laid down in the decision of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee must continue to be upheld in future efforts to pursue universal suffrage,” the top legislature said in a statement.
The NPC said a small number of lawmakers at the Legislative Council had stubbornly chosen to oppose the central government in dire disregard of Hong Kong citizens’ high aspirations for universal suffrage.
They have “denigrated decisions made by the central authorities, spared no efforts in blocking the universal suffrage motion, and reduced Hong Kong’s democratic development to a standstill,” according to a statement by the NPC.
The Legislative Council yesterday vetoed the motion of proposed universal suffrage for selecting the region’s next chief executive in 2017.
After a nine-hour debate which began on Wednesday, 28 lawmakers of the Legislative Council voted against the motion while eight voted in favor.
Many lawmakers left the chamber of the legislature building before the vote.
According to a decision by the NPC, the motion needs to be endorsed by at least two-thirds of all 70 lawmakers, or 47 votes, in the LegCo.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said at a press conference after the veto that 28 LegCo members voted against the wishes of the majority of Hong Kong people.
“I, the Hong Kong government and millions of Hong Kong people are naturally disappointed,” said Leung.
“It is time for the community to move on, and in the coming two years, the Hong Kong government will focus on economic development and people’s livelihood issues,” said Leung. “The civil service will continue to serve the public with devotion and professionalism.”
The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the State Council said the result ran counter to the mainstream opinion of Hong Kong society and is not an outcome the central government is willing to see.
“A handful of Hong Kong legislators voted against the motion out of their private interests, hindering the democratic development in Hong Kong and blowing an important opportunity for Hong Kong to realize the election by universal suffrage, a result they should be held responsible for,” the office said.
“That the chief executive of the Special Administrative Region’s government should not be elected as such in 2017 is a result we are unwilling to see,” China’s foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a regularly scheduled news briefing in Beijing after yesterday’s vote on the electoral bill.
He added that China wanted to “press ahead with the democratic development of Hong Kong” in the interests of stability and prosperity in the city.
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