Senior Democrat urges party to try to amend, not reject government’s election plan

A senior member of the Democratic Party has sent a mass letter to his party colleagues, urging them to push through amendments to the government’s political reform package instead of voting it down altogether.

The letter by former lawmaker and founding party member Law Chi-kwong was sent ahead of a party meeting planned for Thursday evening in which members are to discuss the government’s reform plan.

In the letter, seen by the South China Morning Post, Law said the party would be better off seeking to amend the current government blueprint because the election methods it proposes, despite amounting to “fake universal suffrage”, would still raise the recognition of future chief executives.

He said those amendments could include the so-called “blank vote” proposal and two others earlier suggested by HK2020, a think-tank led by former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang.

Under the “blank vote” plan, an option for “none of the above” would appear on ballots. If that option accounted for 50 per cent of the vote or more, it would force a new election. It is intended to put pressure on the candidates, handpicked by a 1,200-strong nominating committee, to lobby for support from the public as well as from the committee members.

The two other proposals by HK2020 include one that suggests replacing all corporate votes with individual votes in the nominating committee to increase public representation.

Another of its proposals suggests that all candidates who have secured one-tenth of votes from the nominating committee can have their names appear on the ballot paper.