There was immediate support for the electoral reform proposals put forward by the government Wednesday.

Executive Council Convener Leung Chun-ying said the packages are worth supporting, saying they will lay a good foundation for universal suffrage of the Chief Executive (CE) and Legislative Council (LegCo).

Maria Tam, a member of the Committee for the Basic Law, said the method for selecting the CE is less controversial. She deemed the electoral method for the LegCo has more democratic elements than before, given the elected district councilors have a broad electoral base of about 3.3 million.

It is necessary to move a step forward and not to stand still, she commented. As to the future of the functional constituencies, it is unnecessary to deal with the problem before 2012 as there is enough time to resolve the problem before 2020, she said.

Views among the parties represented in LegCo are diverse. Tam Yiu-chung, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, said his party supports the packages because they are more democratic than the 2005 packages.

For example, the new seats for functional constituencies will only be returned among elected district councilors, while the appointed district councilors will not be allowed to vote, he said.

He worried, however, that the packages would not be passed in the LegCo. The opposition lawmakers have demands that are not easy to entertain, he noted.

Jeffrey Lam, a legislator from Economic Synergy which is composed of businessmen and functional constituency legislators, said the packages contain more democratic elements within the framework of the Basic Law and the decision that the National People's Congress Standing Committee made in December 2007.

Though the packages are not ideal, he said, people should set aside differences and support the packages that come out through extensive consultation, in order not to recreate the political impasse of 2005.

The Liberal Party has not decided whether to support the packages at this stage. "We are a bit disappointed because the packages do not touch on ways to reform the functional constituencies and to broaden their electoral base," its chairperson Miriam Lau said.

The opposition camp, including the Civic Party and the Democratic Party, which, respectively, are for and against the so called "referendum", was critical of the government packages.

Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho said that it would not accept the government's reform proposals on grounds that they feel they do not meet the standard for setting a clear road map to universal suffrage in 2017 and 2020.

Civic Party leader Audrey Eu said the packages are unacceptable because the government has not spoken firmly on the cancellation of the functional constituencies.

China Daily

(HK Edition 04/15/2010 page1)