The legislature's functional constituencies cannot survive in their present form and their future will be addressed in next month's consultation on the 2012 Legislative Council elections, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said yesterday.
The chief executive said the controversial trade-based seats were 'not totally compatible with the principles of equal and universal suffrage' and this would be a question to consider when designing electoral arrangements for the 2012 and 2016 Legco elections.
It was the clearest indication yet by Tsang that the trade-based seats, which now make up half the 60-seat legislature, will be modified.
Beijing has said universal suffrage can be introduced for the Legco election in 2020 and the chief executive election in 2017.
The chief executive's words drew a storm of criticism from democrats, who took them as a signal that the functional constituencies, which they want abolished, will stay.
'Functional constituencies in their present form are not totally compatible with the principles of equal and universal suffrage,' Tsang, who barely mentioned electoral reform in his policy address on Wednesday, said during a rowdy question-and-answer session.
'They cannot be kept in their present form under the electoral system for Legco in 2020,' he said. 'Of course, we have to consider this issue in designing the methods for the elections in 2012 and 2016.'
