Is the blank-vote option for 2017 chief executive election a realistic idea?
An olive branch, in the form of a blank vote, has been offered to solve the 2017 election impasse, but is the 'none of the above' option realistic?
At first, the idea of a blank vote had seemed too alien or too desperate to be taken seriously. Slowly, however, the lobby is growing and now no one is ruling it out just yet.
After the sound and fury of Occupy last year, Hongkongers are coming around to realising that Beijing may not relent on the rules for the 2017 election of the chief executive and now they ask pessimistically: can we simply turn down all the choices before us?
The debate over a blank ballot or the "none-of-the-above" voting option has gained momentum as the government last week embarked on the second round of political reform consultation, unequivocally backing Beijing's position that a nominating committee will select two or three candidates to stand before the electorate.
The 1,200-strong body, modelled on the election committee in place since the handover, is widely predicted, fairly or unfairly, to be a clubhouse for pro- Beijing figures. In effect, pan-democrats - the majority winners in most Legislative Council polls since the handover - will unlikely be able to run for the top job, though a nascent view is that they could well be selected.
The 27 pan-democrats in the 70-member Legco have vowed to veto the political reform bill when it is tabled after the consultation process. This would then trigger the real possibility of the chief executive being chosen in the same way as 2012, by the 1,200-member committee.
Can enough of them - four to be exact - be persuaded to abandon this pledge? If they do and go along with the government, the reform bill will get the two-thirds majority and be approved. That is the outcome Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her team are trying valiantly to ensure.