It has taken two months of public consultation - involving 82 groups and 600 submissions - for the chief secretary's taskforce to answer five legal questions on Hong Kong's democratic reform.
In its first report, dealing exclusively with legal issues surrounding constitutional development, the taskforce affirmed that changes to the method of electing the next chief executive in 2007 would be legally possible.
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said the public was split over whether the phrase in Annex I of the Basic Law 'terms subsequent to the year 2007' actually included the year 2007. His taskforce concluded that changing the chief executive's electoral method in 2007 'may be considered' if there was a need.
The report said the taskforce consulted a statement made by late chief Basic Law drafter Ji Pengfei and other legal documents concerning the Basic Law's original blueprint of preserving stability and prosperity in Hong Kong in the 10 years after the reunification.
The taskforce concluded that if a decision was made to change the electoral system, Annex I and II of the Basic Law must be amended together with the local election laws to avoid discrepancies. The annexes govern the methods of electing the chief executive and the legislature.
The report also said there was no need to evoke the formal and more complicated mechanism of amending the Basic Law under Article 159 when amending the annexes.
