Public suggestions for 2017 race less likely to violate Basic Law: Rimsky Yuen
Justice secretary says allowing citizens to 'recommend' chief executive candidates for further selection will avoid violating Basic Law
Allowing Hongkongers to make "non-binding" recommendations for chief executive candidates to run in the 2017 election is less likely to violate the city's mini-constitution, the Secretary for Justice says.
Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung was yesterday referring to an electoral reform idea put forward by Basic Law Committee member Albert Chen Hung-yee, a University of Hong Kong law professor.
Chen had suggested a two-stage nominating procedure: first allowing the public to "recommend" candidates, then having the nominating committee select a number of those candidates from the list.
But the idea was criticised by the city's pan-democrats. They argued that anyone who secured a certain number of nominations should be allowed to enter the race without having to be vetted or approved by the committee.
Whether the committee had the right to refuse the "recommended" candidates would be the crux of the discussion, Yuen said in an online interview with Democrats leader Emily Lau Wai-hing yesterday.
"The two [situations] have a great difference," he said. "If the nominating procedure allows the committee to decide whether to put forward the candidates [recommended by the public], the chances that it might violate Article 45 in the Basic Law would be greatly reduced.
And while Beijing officials have said the candidates must "love China, love Hong Kong", Yuen admitted it would be hard to write this into legislation.