The secret's out
It is generally acknowledged that Hong Kong's current system for choosing the chief executive is not sufficiently democratic and will, over time, become more representative until, some day, our leader will be chosen through universal suffrage.
It is less generally known, however, that our system, which produced Donald Tsang Yam-kuen as the next chief executive, is even less democratic than the one that produced the first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, in 1996.
At that time, the Preparatory Committee provided for a two-step election. In order to qualify as a valid candidate, each aspirant had to obtain a minimum of 50 nominations from the 400-member Selection Committee.
On November 15, 1996, in a vote by secret ballot presided over by then vice-premier Qian Qichen , three valid candidates emerged: Mr Tung with 206 nominations, former chief justice Sir Ti-liang Yang with 82 and business tycoon Peter Woo Kwong-ching with 54.
Then, after several weeks of campaigning, the Selection Committee met again on December 11 to make the final decision. In this round Mr Tung won 320 votes,
Sir Ti-liang 42 and Mr Woo 36. So Mr Tung became the first chief executive.
A similar procedure was laid down in the Basic Law for the selection of future chief executives. Evidently, the idea was that the procedure would be more democratic than that of 1996. For one thing, the number of electors was doubled to 800. And the name of the body was changed from Selection Committee to Election Committee.
But there is one glaring difference between the 1996 procedure and that of last week. While in 1996 the nominations were by secret ballot, this time - as well as in 2002 - it was not the case.
All members of the Election Committee were required to reveal who they were nominating.
Mr Tsang defended this procedure by saying Election Committee members had to be accountable to the sectors they represented. However, nowhere in the Basic Law is there any requirement for open nominations of candidates. In fact, the Basic Law, in addition to saying that the chief executive is to be elected 'by secret ballot', also says: 'members of the Election Committee shall vote in their individual capacities' (not as sector representatives).
According to the Chief Executive Election Ordinance enacted in 2001, a nomination of a candidate shall be made 'by delivering a duly completed nomination form to the returning officer', signed by a committee member. But the returning officer will know which candidate the member nominated, meaning that it is not really a secret ballot.
However, regulations drawn up by the Electoral Affairs Commission call for candidates, not Election Committee members, to deliver the nomination form to the returning officer.
This means that each candidate has to obtain a signed nomination form from committee members supporting his or her candidacy. Thus, the principle of a secret ballot is completely abandoned.
As a result, the nomination process became the election process. This was the case both in 2002 and this year. In this way, the Basic Law's provision for a secret ballot election has been completely subverted.
Mr Tsang has been overseeing efforts to make future elections more representative. The nomination procedure should be made consistent with the concept of a secret ballot.
The Basic Law does not need to be changed, only Hong Kong's own laws and regulations.
Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based writer and commentator
