Lawyer Alan Hoo suggests alternative track for 2017 election hopefuls
Alan Hoo sees room for members of the public to nominate chief executive candidates before they face the vote of the nominating committee
The public can get a role in nominating candidates for chief executive in 2017 without breaching the Basic Law stipulation that only a "nominating committee" is allowed to put forward hopefuls, a local expert on the mini-constitution says.
Alan Hoo, a barrister and chairman of the Basic Law Institute, proposes a dual-track system under which members of the public could put forward candidates for an internal election in the nominating committee.
The 2017 poll is due to be the first run under universal suffrage, but the nomination process has become a key bone of contention - pan-democrats fear it will be used to "screen out" candidates critical of Beijing.
"There is room in the Basic Law that allows dual-track candidate recommendation, involving public participation," Hoo said in Beijing, where he is attending meetings of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as a deputy.
Hoo says he has been lobbying for support in the capital and that his idea has received a "positive response" from Basic Law Committee chairman Li Fei; Qiao Xiaoyang, chairman of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress; and Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
He proposes that hopefuls who secured endorsements from one-eighth of the nominating committee or 70,000 signatures from the public would become "official nominees". The committee would elect a certain number to run in the election as "official candidates".