Ronny Tong threatens to quit over reform

A moderate pan-democratic lawmaker has threatened to resign from the Legislative Council if he finds the government's proposal for the 2017 chief executive election unacceptable.

Ronny Tong Ka-wah said that would make it meaningless for him to remain in Legco as consensus on reform was his priority.

With divisions between pan-democrat lawmakers and the government leading to bills being held up, Tong told a Commercial Radio show yesterday: "As a legislator, I feel a strong sense of helplessness as Legco has been plagued by filibusters while the government often fails to respond to public opinion."

The Civic Party lawmaker's reform proposal has been attacked by other pan-democrats for doing away with public nomination, an idea dismissed by Beijing as inconsistent with the Basic Law - which allows for universal suffrage in 2017, once candidates have been put forward by a nominating committee.

Tong suggests expanding the 1,200-strong election committee that voted in the chief executive in 2012 by including all popularly elected district councillors.

Tong, a directly elected lawmaker since 2004, said heckling at a seminar on Sunday had left him unsure whether to vote in the June 20-22 Occupy Central movement's "referendum" for fear the results would be twisted by radicals. The three vote options involve public nomination.

Tong, who organised the forum on reform, and Basic Law Committee member Rao Geping faced a barrage of insults.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party leader Emily Lau Wai-hing said two party representatives hoped to meet the central government's Hong Kong liaison office chief, Zhang Xiaoming , after the July 1 protest rally.