Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Michael Suen Ming-yeung has asked voters not to demonstrate any disapproval of the electoral system by returning blank ballot papers in the poll. On an ATV talk show last night, presenter Albert Cheng King-hon told a caller who felt frustrated with the system to leave the paper blank. 'That may be Cheng's opinion, but I think this method is not desirable,' Mr Suen said. 'And I feel such action should not be encouraged.' Mr Suen said dissatisfaction with the system had to be raised through the media. Earlier yesterday, a group of political activists, campaigning for universal suffrage in the year 2000, called for similar action. Also on the programme, Mr Suen defended his decision to express his personal views about political development, a move which led the Democratic Party to lodge a formal complaint yesterday. In a letter of complaint to the chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission chairman, Mr Justice Woo Kwok-hing, the party agreed Mr Suen was entitled to his own views. 'However, for Secretary Suen to express these views in his official capacity creates the appearance that these views are endorsed by the Government - or worse, it appears that the Government is giving credibility to the parties that oppose a faster pace towards democracy,' the party wrote to Mr Justice Woo. 'Interference of this kind by Hong Kong's civil service creates a conflict of interest and threatens to compromise the fairness of these elections. Mr Suen responded: 'I was speaking in accordance to my current understanding of the system. 'And I was only saying that for the present period, because of such environment, I was putting forward such a view about future prospects.' Mr Suen indicated that the pace of democratic development should follow the Basic Law. And proportional representation would remain for the next election unless the future legislative council insisted otherwise, he said.
