HK submits report on election reform
Print Edition
HONG Kong government formally asked China’s top legislature yesterday for legal changes that will pave the way for a citywide leadership election in the free-wheeling Asian financial hub in 2017.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in a report to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress that Hong Kong residents want their next leader to be “a person who loves the country and loves Hong Kong.”
The report said consultations with nearly 125,000 people and groups in the city found they were “eager” for universal suffrage.
The report said that “there is a need to amend the method for selecting the CE (chief executive) in 2017 in order to attain the aim of universal suffrage.”
Currently the leader is chosen by a 1,200-strong committee.
Hong Kong voters can elect the next chief executive but candidates must be picked by a nominating committee, the report said.
Leung, citing the findings of an official public consultation on reform, said mainstream opinion believed that a nominating committee should choose candidates, in line with the Basic Law that governs Hong Kong.
Hong Kong returned to the motherland in 1997 with wide-ranging autonomy under the formula of “one country, two systems.”
“Implementing universal suffrage for the Chief Executive’s election will be an important milestone of the democratic development of Hong Kong’s political system, with significant real impact and historic meaning,” the report said.
The report focuses on whether there is a need to amend the methods for selecting Hong Kong’s Chief Executive in 2017 and for forming the Legislative Council in 2016.
“We will be able to take a big stride forward in the democratic development of Hong Kong if we are willing to forge consensus as much as we can and leave behind our differences in a rational and pragmatic manner on the remaining work,” Leung told a press conference after he submitted the report to the NPC Standing Committee.
“In about two years, over 5 million eligible voters in Hong Kong could directly elect the Chief Executive through ‘one person, one vote’ for the first time in our history,” Leung said.
He said if the country’s top legislature takes a decision in August, another round of public consultation will be launched around the end of this year to collect views on specific proposals on implementing universal suffrage for the Chief Executive election in 2017.
Leung stressed that the general public should have to uphold the rule of law and act according to the law as Hong Kong could implement universal suffrage only if the Hong Kong people comply with the Basic Law and the relevant Interpretation and Decisions of the NPC Standing Committee.
Leung admitted there were “divergent” opinions on how the next leader should be elected, including “considerable views” that civil nomination should be included. But he added that “professional bodies of the legal sector and other members of the public” had said that would not be in line with the Basic Law.
The submission of Leung’s report is the first in a five-step process on Hong Kong’s electoral reform.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
