Bar Association calls for options on reform offering 'greatest possible' public participation

The government will "abuse the concept of the rule of law" if it rejects the notion of voters nominating chief executive candidates without offering alternatives that ensure the greatest possible public participation, the Bar Association said yesterday.

The Bar - which earlier said public nomination was incompatible with the Basic Law - also criticised as unfair the government's selective use of its views on political reform.

The United States, meanwhile, has voiced support for the 2017 chief executive election - the first under universal suffrage - to be run by a method "judged credible" by the people.

The statements came ahead of the scheduled release on Tuesday of the government's first report on electoral reform and followed Occupy Central's unofficial referendum in which 720,000 people backed proposals calling for public nomination.

"It would be irresponsible for the government to simply reject [public nomination out of hand], or to recommend that the central authorities disapprove or exclude that proposal on the ground of non-compliance with the Basic Law - and then do no more about the proposal," the association said.

In its submission in April, the Bar said public nomination - consistently rejected by Beijing - was incompatible with the Basic Law, which states that only a nominating committee can put forward candidates. But it also described Beijing's idea that candidates must be patriots who "love the country and love Hong Kong" as highly questionable.

Yesterday it said officials had been unfairly citing only the part on public nomination.