Pan-democrats to roll out 2017 suffrage plan six months early
Lawmakers hope consensus will help counter government's message on chief executive vote
Pan-democratic lawmakers are set to unveil their blueprint for achieving universal suffrage in 2017 by the end of next month after reaching a consensus on the principles to adopt for the next chief executive election.
The Alliance for True Democracy, which comprises the camp's 27 legislators, from 12 political groups, had originally planned to wait at least six months longer before issuing its proposal.
The plan is expected to touch on the size and composition of the future nominating committee for chief executive candidates, and the interpretation of the "democratic procedures" prescribed in the Basic Law.
Alliance convenor Joseph Cheng Yu-shek said a statement of consensus would be published on Wednesday, after which a group of academics would be commissioned to draft a proposal that fitted the consensus.
The group would comprise eight or nine political scientists, including Chinese University's Ma Ngok. Cheng expected the alliance would be ready to announce its tentative proposal by late June.
"You may say the alliance's work flow has now been fast-tracked," said Professional Commons chairman Charles Mok. "The gap between parties over electoral reform is not as big as we thought and we want to come up with a proposal sooner so public discussion can be more focused."