Explanation on decision of HK constitutional development
Updated: 2007-12-29 20:25
The procedures for voting on bills and motions in the Legislative Council shall remain unchanged. Subject to the aforementioned, appropriate amendments conforming to the principle of gradual and orderly progress may be made to the specific method for selecting the fourth Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the year 2012 and the specific method for forming the fifth term Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in the year 2012 in accordance with the provisions of Article 45 and 68, and those of Article 7 of Annex I and Article III of Annex II to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China."
There are three major reasons for putting the first article this way.
Firstly, in accordance with the HKSAR Basic Law, the methods for selecting the Chief Executive and forming the Legislative Council of the HKSAR should be amended in an orderly and gradual way, with the final aim of achieving universal suffrage for both, Qiao said.
Appropriate amendments to the specific methods for selecting the Chief Executive and for forming the Legislative Council of the HKSAR in the year 2012, can be taken as the intermediate station toward the universal suffrage, and will be beneficial to final achievement of universal suffrage, Qiao said.
However, the amendments should be made under the precondition of no universal suffrage for both the election of the fourth Chief Executive of the HKSAR and the election of the fifth term Legislative Council of the HKSAR in the year 2012, he said.
Secondly, judging from the results of public consultation in Hong Kong, within the Legislative Council, only less than half of the council members supported "Double Universal Suffrage" in 2012, half of the council members are in favor of universal suffrage first for electing of Chief Executive of the HKSAR in 2017 or later than 2017, and then introduce the universal suffrage for the election of the Legislative Council, Qiao said.
He said more than two-thirds of the 18 district councils passed motions to support universal suffrage for the Chief Executive election in 2017 or no later than 2017, and then follows the universal suffrage for the Legislative Council election.
Public opinion poll showed that although more than half of the Hong Kong residents surveyed said that they hope "double universal suffrage" can be practiced in 2012, about 60 percent said they can accept that the universal suffrage for Chief Executive election delayed till 2017 if it cannot be practiced in 2012, while more than half said they accept that the universal suffrage for the Legislative Council election be delayed till 2016 or later than 2016.
More than 150,000 Hong Kong residents signed to support the universal suffrage for Chief Executive election either no later than 2017 or in 2017 or after 2017, among which 130,000 supported the practice of universal suffrage for Chief Executive first and universal suffrage for Legislative council second.
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