CY Leung under fire over universal suffrage claims at question and answer session
Chief executive met with banners and slogans, then ridiculed for claims all universal suffrage is ‘genuine’ if done in accordance with the law
The pan-democrats waged open warfare against Leung Chun-ying on Thursday, making it clearer than ever there will be no compromise over universal suffrage.
A day after the chief executive fired the opening volley by urging voters to punish opposition lawmakers in next year's Legislative Council election, they confronted him with slogans, banners and yellow umbrellas as he entered the chamber for a highly charged question-and-answer session
During the meeting, Leung said all universal suffrage systems in the world can be regarded as "genuine" if they are designed in accordance with the law.
However, pan-democrats ridiculed Leung for "failing in elementary political theory", adding that his remarks could make Hong Kong a "laughing stock".
It was the third day in a row that Leung's comments had irked the pan-democratic camp.
On Tuesday, Leung stated he would "not rule out any possibility" about seeking re-election in 2017. A day later, he said electors should "vote out" the pan-democrats in upcoming elections if they were unhappy with the camp's filibustering in Legco and its support for Occupy Central.
The comments raised questions over whether the government can win over some pan-democrats to get its political reform package through Legco with a two-thirds majority.
Yesterday, Leung reiterated that he would not agree to a televised debate, as pan-democrats insist Beijing should scrap its firm stance on political reform.
Last year, Beijing ruled that while Hong Kong can elect its leader by popular ballot in 2017, it must choose from two or three candidates endorsed by the majority of a 1,200-strong nominating committee.
When asked by the Democratic Party's Helena Wong Pik-wan if he had told Beijing "that Hongkongers want genuine universal suffrage", Leung replied that "different places have their own [form of] genuine universal suffrage".
He said: "Their system would be genuine universal suffrage as long as it is in accordance with their constitution, system and electoral law.
"Genuine universal suffrage in Hong Kong is universal suffrage implemented according to the Basic Law and the national legislature's relevant decisions."
When Wong asked whether Myanmar, North Korea and the Chinese Communist Party are implementing "genuine universal suffrage", Leung appeared to backtrack and said "universal suffrage is to be implemented according to the law of the place".
Labour Party lawmaker Cyd Ho Sau-lan said Leung's remarks were "typical" of authoritarians who abuse legislative power, but Leung compared Hong Kong's electoral system to that of Britain.
"The UK has universal suffrage and I believe Ho would not say their election is fake democracy," Leung said. "But [Britain's] election method to choose the prime minister is very different from ... the US president," he added, saying that even the British PM is not popularly elected.
After the meeting, Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said: "This exposes … how C.Y. Leung fails even very elementary political theory. How can he say that any political model designed with the restraints of [Beijing's] decision could be comparable to ... the USA and the UK?"
In a survey commissioned by the pan-democratic Alliance for True Democracy, University of Hong Kong pollsters interviewed 1,011 Hongkongers last week, and found that 41 per cent agreed that Beijing's decision "is tantamount to turning the popular vote in 2017 into a fake universal suffrage". But 21 per cent disagreed.
