Civil nomination proposal violates Basic Law, says Zhang Xiaoming
Zhang Xiaoming tells Civic Party director that proposal would violate Basic Law
The head of the central government's liaison office shot down a proposal to let all voters nominate chief executive candidates, saying it's against the Basic Law.
In a rare and high-profile gesture, the liaison office published a letter written by its director, Zhang Xiaoming, to the Civic Party, ruling out the idea of "civil nomination" - allowing contenders to run for the top post in Hong Kong if they obtain a certain proportion of voters' nominations.
The methods for universal suffrage for the chief executive … should not deviate from the legal requirements. As a legal practitioner [you] should understand the legal principles should not be trespassed
One academic said the letter, in which Zhang declined an invitation to attend a seminar on civil nomination, was a warm-up exercise in Beijing's propaganda war against the idea.
Zhang's letter to Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit was dated August 30, but the liaison office only uploaded the letter yesterday.
"The electoral method for the chief executive has to comply with the Basic Law," Zhang wrote. "Article 45 of the Basic Law states that nomination is by a broadly representative nominating committee … there is no other option. Civil nomination has neglected the requirements stated in the Basic Law."
At a lunch with lawmakers in the Legislative Council last month, Zhang hinted that candidates for chief executive in 2017 should be screened. But Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-yan revealed that Zhang said a pan-democrat proposal - making 80,000 voters' nominations a threshold for candidates - did not comply with the Basic Law.