2017 focus falls on the number of candidates
Three is figure emerging after conversation over dinner with CY Leung dwells on how many people should be allowed to run for top job
The debate on whether a limit should be set on the number of candidates in the 2017 chief executive election has been renewed after the central government's liaison office shot down a proposal to let all voters nominate chief executive candidates.
The issue also emerged as one of the key topics among people from across the political spectrum during a dinner hosted by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Tuesday night.
In the past, there was little controversy about the number of candidates in the race, as the Election Committee, which was expanded to 1,200 members last year but remained dominated by Beijing-loyalists, nominated and elected the chief executive.
Candidates had to have a minimum of 150 votes to be nominated, but only three won enough for their bid last year - Leung Chun-ying, Henry Tang Ying-yen and Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan.
In March, Qiao Xiaoyang , chairman of the National People's Congress Law Committee, stoked the debate by saying members of the "opposition" camp who insisted on confronting the central government could not become chief executive. He said the city also had to decide how the nominating committee should work, and how many candidates should be put forward. Although the pan-democratic camp worried Qiao was suggesting they could be "screened" out, pro-Beijing politicians explained there should not be "too many" candidates.
One of them was Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, an executive councillor who was director of Leung's transitional office after he was elected in March last year.
Law said she favoured a three-horse race. "I think three candidates would be manageable. With fewer candidates, the election debate would be more orderly and would allow differentiation of each candidate's manifesto, and evaluation of their vision and abilities," she said.