It is up to the central government to determine how long the next chief executive serves, and there is no need to amend Hong Kong legislation governing his or her election, said a top mainland legal scholar.
Meanwhile, one drafter of the Basic Law said the decision that the next chief executive will serve only the remainder of Tung Chee-hwa's term could be a one-off and other rules could be applied after 2007 if a chief executive quits early.
The scholar, Wang Zhenmin, deputy dean of Tsinghua University's law school, agreed with arguments put forward by the Basic Law Institute that how long a chief executive should serve was purely a matter for Beijing.
He told the South China Morning Post he saw no need to change the Chief Executive Election Ordinance to say that the successor to a chief executive who quits prematurely will only serve the remainder of the outgoing leader's term.
Professor Wang's remarks came a day after the Basic Law Institute proposed stripping the ordinance of any mention of the term a chief executive should serve, as a way to end legal wrangling over whether Mr Tung's successor should serve five years, as the Basic Law prescribes, or the two remaining years of Mr Tung's term. 'Although the Basic Law and the ordinance provide a five-year term for a chief executive, it is referring to a chief executive elected under normal circumstances,' said Professor Wang.
A spokesman for the Constitutional Affairs Bureau said the government considered it necessary to clarify that the new chief executive's term shall be the remainder of the term of the preceding leader.
