Acting Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen yesterday expressed fears that the election to select Tung Chee-hwa's successor on July 10 could suffer a 'miscarriage' if a proposed judicial review halts the election process.
While pro-Beijing politicians asked the government to seek an interpretation of the Basic Law to block all legal challenges, the Democrats urged Mr Tsang to trust the courts and refrain from damaging the rule of law by seeking Beijing's interference.
Speaking before consulting the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong and the Democratic Party in separate meetings on how to solve the row over the next chief executive's term, Mr Tsang expressed fears that the election could be stalled.
'The general public in Hong Kong has a general wish, which is to smoothly elect a chief executive on July 10,' he said.
Mr Tsang said the government was responsible for addressing public concerns over how its operations would be affected by uncertainty surrounding the length of the next chief executive's term, which the government and Beijing insist should be the remainder of Mr Tung's term, despite the Basic Law's provision that a term should be five years.
He said independent democrat Albert Chan Wai-yip's proposed legal challenge to the decision could derail the election.
'This has really worried me on whether the chief executive election would have a miscarriage ... I hope we can come up with all possible measures to extinguish these unnecessary concerns,' he said.