The Legislative Council (LegCo) Wednesday began the debate on the two electoral methods for 2012, with tension evident both inside and outside the LegCo Building.

In the LegCo chamber, there were heated arguments, heightened by lawmaker Andrew Cheng quitting the Democratic Party (DP) to oppose the reform proposal.

Outside the main entrance, hundreds of protestors gathered to listen to the live broadcast of the meeting, hold discussions, chant slogans and demand the recall of the government proposal.

At Chater Garden on the other side of the building, about 2,000 people who supported the government proposal held a gathering in a carnival atmosphere to voice their support.

Also clearly evident was the stepped-up police security for the controversial debate: Apart from their strong presence and the installation of tiers of steel barriers outside the entrances of the LegCo Building, police closed three exits of the adjacent Central metro station, within which they patrolled.

At the extraordinary general meeting of the DP Monday night, almost 80 percent of the members endorsed the government proposal. Unfortunately, it exposed an internal crisis, with founding chairman Martin Lee, lawmakers James To and Andrew Cheng opposing the route of negotiation and the "one man, two votes" system to choose the five new LegCo functional constituency seats.

The prospect of Cheng's departure from the DP has been very much in the air for the past few days and he has been approached by many friends, as well as the media, who wanted to know his ultimate decision and ask him to stay.

In his speech, Cheng said he would have to make the biggest decision, given his severe differences with the party. However, he added that his decision would not affect his friendship with the party he developed over the past 16 years.

The 2008 election pledge to strive for dual universal suffrage in 2012 was a solemn one made by candidates from the pan-democratic camp, he said, and so democratic legislators need to be accountable to those supporters who voted for them.

Cheng feared the revised package would make it harder to scrap the functional constituency (FC). Although some people say the FC is improved as its electorate is enlarged, he wondered whether the five new "super" lawmakers returned from the district councils with several hundred thousand votes behind them would be willing to scrap the FC.

He predicted that if such a transitional package is carried, the people's power will be weakened over the course of time and they will drift farther away from the ultimate destination of universal suffrage.

In his parting note, he called on the pan-democratic members to continue their hard work, remain united and stop abusing each another.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/24/2010 page1)