Hong Kong election changes floated to win over pan-democrats

The electoral college for the 2022 chief executive election could be expanded from 1,200 members to 1,600 and new sectors such as women and young people could be added, a government source said.

The changes are among ideas being floated by the administration to win over pan-democratic lawmakers who have vowed to vote down the government's proposal for the 2017 poll, the first time the city's leader could be elected by universal suffrage.

In August, the National People's Congress Standing Committee ruled that only two or three candidates who had clinched majority support from a 1,200-member nominating committee could contest the one-man, one-vote public ballot in 2017.

Methods for electing the committee, its composition and size, will be "in accordance with" those of the election committee that decided the 2012 poll. It will be divided between four sectors and largely chosen by about 250,000 individual and corporate voters in dozens of subsectors.

Pan-democrats, of whom at least four would have to vote in favour for the government proposal to pass, have vowed to veto any package based on the restrictive framework. Beijing has insisted that it will not retract its decision.

"Based on our recent meetings with some pan-democratic lawmakers, their major demands are a pledge to improve the method for electing the chief executive after universal suffrage is implemented in 2017 and the abolition of functional constituencies in 2020," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"A fifth sector could be added to the nominating committee in 2022 to include new sectors such as young people, civil servants and women," the source said. "Representatives of sectors like young people could be elected by 'one man, one vote'."