A tram in Hong Kong carries an advertisement promoting the 2012 electoral reform packages. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam said Wednesday the government has earmarked HK$9 million for publicity exercises, including TV and radio APIs, posters and leaflets, for the 2012 electoral packages. Hong Shaokui / China News Service

Lawmakers urged to back reform to pave way for universal suffrage

Constitutional development in Hong Kong reached a critical stage as the Legislative Council (Legco) gets ready to vote on the 2012 electoral reform packages on June 23, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam said Wednesday. He called on the democratic camp to support the packages to move a step closer to implementation of universal suffrage in 2017 and 2020.

Lam made his points during a Legislative Council motion debate on constitutional reform. Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong moved the motion.

In his submission, he referred to the definition of universal suffrage provided on Monday by Qiao Xiaoyang, deputy secretary-general of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC).

Tong said people feel uncomfortable with Qiao's comment because he has imposed additional conditions on the implementation of universal suffrage. Qiao also mentioned election rights, Tong added, but Basic Law article 26 stipulates the rights concerning election as well as nomination.

Remarking on the 2012 electoral packages, Lam said the government has fully explored the latitude for democracy within the framework of Basic Law and the NPCSC decision. If the 2012 packages were vetoed again, he is afraid the stalemate would not help build a consensus on universal suffrage of the Chief Executive election in 2017. He said failure could also affect mutual trust between Hong Kong and Beijing.

With two weeks remaining, he called the democrats not to close the doors and explore further communication.

Commercial constituency lawmaker Jeffrey Lam called on various parties to support the 2012 packages to set a foundation for universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council. He also defended the retention of the functional constituency (FC), saying that FC lawmakers are more familiar with economic affairs.

Paul Chan, who represents the accounting constituency, said the 2012 packages are not too bad. Particularly, the increase of five LegCo seats for the district council constituency has a greater number of democratic elements than increased seats for traditional functional constituencies.

In his view, the existing FC does not comply with the 'universal' and 'equal' principles. It should be scrapped once and for all when constitutional development in Hong Kong is mature enough, but the FC is not a hindrance to the passage of the 2012 packages.

Both the original motion and two amended motions were vetoed.

Earlier at the meeting, Lam said Chief Executive Donald Tsang would not dissolve LegCo under Basic Law article 50 if the electoral packages were vetoed. The meaning of "important bill" under article 50 applies only to local legislation, while the electoral packages are related to annexes I and II of the Basic Law, he explained.

Lam also said the government has earmarked HK$9 million for publicity exercise, including TV and radio APIs, posters and leaflets, for the 2012 electoral packages; while arguing that it is inappropriate to compare the expenditure with publicity for the recent by-election, which in the government's view was unnecessary and could have been avoided.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/10/2010 page1)