When Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen stood for re-election in March, he said he would find an ultimate solution to the question of universal suffrage, a problem which has plagued Hong Kong for over two decades.
Developments in the past few weeks show Mr Tsang might have got it wrong. Quoting sources from Beijing, some news reports said the focus of the current discussion on universal suffrage was wide of the mark.
According to the Basic Law, 'the ultimate aim is the selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures'. As for the Legislative Council, 'the ultimate aim is for the election of all the members by universal suffrage'.
In the past few weeks, a committee of the Commission on Strategic Development, which is appointed and chaired by Mr Tsang, held workshops and meetings to discuss direct elections of the chief executive and all members of Legco. After these meetings, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung said that the discussions were on the size of the nominating committee and the nomination threshold.
Some news reports said the discussions had missed core issues, which included the concepts of 'prior communication' and 'entire nominations'.
These concepts are not in the Basic Law, but Beijing may introduce them in order to ensure that only acceptable candidates are nominated.
Under the concept of 'entire nominations', potential candidates intending to run for chief executive would have to win approval from the nominating committee as a whole - rather than just securing a certain percentage of nominations - before they could stand for election.