Opinion | Up to Legco to work out proposal for 2017 electoral nomination
Frank Ching says rather than wait for Leung to act, legislators should begin to discuss how the 2017 electoral nomination will work
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has been pilloried for not coming forward with a proposal on how the universal suffrage election in 2017 will be conducted. From a technical standpoint, an electoral reform bill has to be introduced by the government. The Legislative Council will then need to approve it by a two-thirds majority, after which the chief executive will have to give his consent, followed by approval from the central government.
The most difficult part will be getting two-thirds of Legco - or 47 of its 70 legislators - to agree. Both the pro-democracy and pro-establishment camps can veto the other's proposal. What is needed is a compromise on the structure of the nominating committee and how it will make decisions.
Martin Lee Chu-ming, founding chairman of the Democratic Party, put forward the idea of the nominating committee endorsing five candidates, at least one of whom, presumably, would be a democrat. Others have proposed even more nominations, to ensure a democratic candidate.
So far, however, no one has proposed how the nominating committee itself should be set up.
When the National People's Congress Standing Committee decided in 2007 to allow universal suffrage in 2017, it said that the nominating committee "may be formed with reference to the current provisions regarding the Election Committee".
The current Election Committee comprises four sectors, roughly corresponding to business, the professions, labour and social services, and politicians, each with 300 members.