Cheung Chi-kong, non-official member of the Executive Council, urged opposition lawmakers to take public demands seriously and pass the electoral reform package which will be tabled in the Legislative Council on Wednesday. Parker Zheng / China Daily

Executive Councilor Cheung Chi-kong said people should continue to pressure opposition lawmakers in the hope that they would change their minds at the last minute and vote for the electoral reform package.

These lawmakers would be held responsible if they veto the reform plan and hinder democratic progress in Hong Kong, he warned.

Speaking to China Daily in an exclusive interview, Cheung, who is also executive director of One Country Two Systems Research Institute, said the chance of the package passing was slim. This was unless some people in the opposition camp change their minds.

"They will be fully responsible for denying Chief Executive election by 'one person, one vote' in 2017 if they vote down the package," he said. "It is very clear that the electoral proposal contains greater democratic elements. If it is carried, the 5 million eligible voters can exert their influence and make future government policies more responsive to people's needs."

Cheung believes the opposition is resisting it because they think they cannot meet the nomination threshold to become election candidates.

"Perhaps the biggest reason is they do not want universal suffrage at all," he said. "If universal suffrage is achieved, they will lose the issue forever. If there is no universal suffrage, they can continue to bundle together and play with this issue."

Cheung noted that the RTHK's latest deliberating poll announced on Sunday revealed that 50 percent of participants want the Legislative Council to pass the reform package. This compared with 33 percent who don't - showing a large gap of 17 percentage points.

Besides, Monday's outcome of the rolling poll conducted by three local universities was 45 percent supported and 39 percent opposed reform. This showed a reversion of the findings in polls last week as the number of people in support of the package once again exceeded the number of people against it.

Last week, respondents who opposed the package (44 percent) exceeded those supporting it (41 percent) for the first time in an opinion poll. The opposition camp was overly excited and called it a "golden cross".

Cheung responded that "golden cross" was just a slogan. Because different polls and different questions posed to the respondents can yield different results, people need to read more polls for comparisons.

"Polls are for reference only. We must talk reason and we can imagine that veto of the reform will not bring Hong Kong any good," he commented. Cheung added that the results of surveys by his institute were steady (50 percent for versus 30 percent against) without fluctuations.

'Bribery' farce

Cheung also expressed concern over radical lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung's claim he was offered a bribe of HK$100 million to vote for the reform package. Leung, also known as "Long Hair", has subsequently admitted that this figure was a fabrication. Cheung stressed that bribery was a very serious offence.

He is urging the Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate Leung to find out whether he had made up the story that he was offered a bribe to vote for reform.

He believes the opposition spread this story to prevent any of them from voting "yes" to the reform plan. They also hope it might damage the reputation of the central government and SAR government.

"(Leung) is grossly irresponsible if he accuses someone without evidence," said Cheung. "Now instead of him reporting it to ICAC, the graft buster will investigate him to find out whether he lied."

joseph@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 06/16/2015 page4)