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'Universal suffrage in 2007 flouts Basic Law'

If we meant to allow popular vote, it would be in there, says mainland drafter

Electing the chief executive by universal suffrage in 2007 goes against the Basic Law principle of 'gradual and orderly progress' - and there's no point in pursuing it, one of the mainland drafters of the mini-constitution said yesterday.

'If the chief executive were to be elected by universal suffrage in 2007, we should have stated that in the Basic Law [when it was drafted in the 1980s],' Xiao Weiyun told a forum in Hong Kong on constitutional reform. 'What's the point of us discussing the issue now?'

He said Hong Kong people should now concentrate on reviving the city's economy.

Professor Xiao, Xia Rong, a mainland member of the Basic Law Committee under the National People's Congress, who also attended the forum, and two other mainland legal experts were quoted by Xinhua last month as saying it was 'a misunderstanding' that some people in Hong Kong regarded constitutional change as 'entirely the special administrative region's internal affair'.

Professor Xiao, 80, admitted that the Basic Law Drafting Committee did not go into detail on the meaning of the clause that says Hong Kong's electoral system should change in accordance with the principle of 'gradual and orderly progress'.

But he said the methods for electing the first and second chief executives in 1997 and 2002 had been good examples of 'gradual and orderly progress'.

The first chief executive was selected by a 400-member election committee, while an 800-strong election committee chose the city's second leader.

Professor Xiao also cited the changes to the method for electing the Legislative Council as an example of 'gradual progress'. This year, six more seats will be returned by direct election.

Annex I of the Basic Law says changes to the method for electing the chief executive in 2007 must be approved by two-thirds of the Legislative Council, the chief executive and the NPC Standing Committee. Under Annex II, changes to the Lego elections must pass the first two hurdles but only require reporting to the committee 'for the record'.

Professor Xiao said while the drafting committee did not define what was meant by reporting for the record, 'my personal understanding was that the Standing Committee can accept or not accept the new law'.

Professor Xiao said he disagreed with the call for 'political power to the people', saying the central government had returned power to the Hong Kong people on July 1, 1997, when it reassumed sovereignty over the city.

He also said the NPC authorised Hong Kong to exercise a high degree of autonomy, but not complete autonomy. 'The central government has the power to decide the development of Hong Kong's political system because it has a bearing on the relationship between the central government and the special administrative region and the long-term prosperity of Hong Kong,' he said.

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