Basic Law expert Albert Chen tries to steer middle road on reform for Hong Kong chief executive election
Basic Law expert Albert Chen calls on people to take what is being offered as a first step towards democracy, even if it's imperfect
One man who is standing there is academic Albert Chen Hung-yee , a member since the 1997 handover of Beijing's top advisory body on the city's mini-constitution and a former law dean of the University of Hong Kong.
With the aim of breaking the impasse, Basic Law Committee member Chen put forward a proposal which would allow voters in the 2017 chief executive election to opt for "none of the above" on the ballot. Under this plan, the election would be nullified if more than 50 per cent of total voters chose this option.
Like previous middle-of-the-road proposals he has put forward, this latest plan failed to garner serious consideration from either side in the political debate. The Hong Kong government has yet to indicate its view, while the pan-democrats are vowing to veto any government package which incorporates Beijing's restrictions, which would see a nominating committee choose just two or three candidates.
The 57-year-old knows well how Beijing thinks.
"Some pan-democrats may have a hope, or I'd call it a fantasy, that if they veto [the package] this time, they may, by 2022, get a better or more democratic framework than [last year's]."
With Xi Jinping almost certain to still be the country's president by then, Chen said there was little chance that Beijing would suddenly lower the threshold a few years later.
