http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1582236/china-parliament-rejects-public-nomination-2017-hong-kong-election
PETER SO
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 31 August, 2014, 3:52pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 31 August, 2014, 4:19pm
A joint group session of the 10th meeting of the 12th China's National People's Congress Standing Committee in Beijing on Aug. 30, 2014. Photo: Xinhua
Beijing has officially set a strict framework on Hong Kong’s first universal suffrage electing the chief executive in 2017 which pan-democrats deemed as closing doors to aspirants with different political views.
The decision, which has been approved unanimously on Sunday afternoon at the nation’s top legislative body Standing Committee of National People’s Congress, allows only two to three candidates contesting in the top job race. And they have to seek support from at least half of the nominating committee members to get on the ballot paper.
On the formation and electoral method of the nominating committee, Beijing also decides that the membership, structure and the way it is formed shall be “in accordance with” the way it constitutes the existing 1,200-strong election committee – in which comprised of four major sectors. It has been elected by around 240,000 voters in 38 sub-sectors.
This is in contrast with the NPC decision in 2007 that the formation of the 2017 nominating committee “could be modelled on” that of the election committee.
It also implies that only minor changes would be possible, as a local deputy attended Standing Committee said it is the Hong Kong government’s responsibility to put forward options further discussion.
The government’s proposed second round of consultation later this year must comfort to Beijing’s decision. And then it requires two-thirds support from the 70-seat Legislative Council to approve the reform.
The resolution stated that the electoral method would remain unchanged if the Legco failed to pass the reform package.
Meanwhile, Beijing has also decided the electoral method for the 2016 Legco election would be unchanged. All members of the legislature could be elected by popular votes after universal suffrage has been implemented for the chief executive.
Pro-democracy camp lawmakers have vowed to veto a proposal that failed to give voters a genuine choice on candidates, and the Occupy Central campaigners said they would start mobilising the campaign when Beijing caps the number of candidates or install a 50 per cent nomination threshold on contestants.
The Occupy campaigners will gather supporters outside the Chief Executive’s office in Tamar at 7pm to 9pm on Sunday when they are expected to announce the next move of the campaign.
It is not known when they would mobilise the “last resort” of the campaign – which would stage a large-scale sit-in in the city’s business hub to block the roads.
More than 7,000 police officers, who have been specially trained to deal with the civil disobedience campaign, have been deployed for the assembly, although the campaigners stressed they would not stage the sit-in tonight.
Writing in his blog at noon, Tsang said his previous visit to an exhibition commemorating the life of former state leader Deng Xiaoping has inspired him that, at this critical moment, people of Hong Kong should learn from Deng’s intelligence. "[People] should find a new angle to solve the problem and turn the zero-sum game to win-win," he wrote.
