A Beijing-friendly professional group has proposed keeping functional constituencies indefinitely but broadening their total electorate to as many as 2 million voters by 2020. Under the proposal, the chief executive would be elected in 2012 by a 1,600-member committee - twice the current size - incorporating all district councillors, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference delegates and representatives from sectors not now represented. Then in 2017, the committee would become the nominating body from which a person would need 400 votes to stand as a candidate in the general election. Releasing the Hong Kong Professionals and Senior Executives Association's universal suffrage model yesterday, president Samuel Yung Wing-ki said the package had broad representativeness. 'There is no such thing as the best model, but we are taking the first step towards universal suffrage in 2012,' he said. The association comprises 360 professional and business executives from different business sectors, including Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce chairwoman Lily Chiang Lai-lei and Airport Authority chief executive officer Stanley Hui Hon-chung. For the Legislative Council elections, the 200,000-strong electorate of the 30 functional constituencies would be broadened from 2012 to, they hope, a total of 2 million.