Cambridge academic backs plan for public to 'recommend' 2017 chief executive candidate
Cambridge academic urges Hongkongers to accept any proposal that guarantees genuine choice of candidates, stresses need for compromise
A University of Cambridge legal scholar has backed a political reform plan which allows all registered voters to non-bindingly recommend - instead of nominate - chief executive candidates for the 2017 poll.
Professor Christopher Forsyth also urged Hongkongers to accept any reform plan that guaranteed a genuine choice of candidates.
Last week, University of Hong Kong constitution expert Professor Michael Davis floated a plan that ignored pan-democrats' call for all voters to be able to nominate candidates and focused on expanding the electoral base of the nominating committee.
"It might pull people from both sides together and be the compromise," Forsyth said .
He added that so-called public recommendation would be compatible with the legal framework set by the Basic Law and the international standard for universal suffrage as reflected in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Under Davis' plan, anyone who secured 10,000 registered voters' signatures of support could be recommended to the nominating committee for consideration but not for "rubber-stamp" approval.
Forsyth disagreed with Beijing-loyalists who argued that even non-binding recommendations might exert undue pressure on the nominating committee.