Voters have right to reject CE candidates vetted by Beijing, say Hong Kong barristers

Hong Kong’s barristers said on Friday voters should be given the right to reject any candidates put forward by the nominating committee vetted by Beijing in the 2017 chief executive’s election.

Top government officials have already expressed fears that this so-called “blank-vote” proposal was unlikely to be included in its electoral reform package due to a lukewarm response from pan-democrats, who fear it could undermine the power of the nominating committee.

The Hong Kong Bar Association (HKBA) said on Friday such an option would “give the voters the right to express their disapproval with the kind of candidates being put forward by the nominating committee.”

“It may have the salutary effect of increasing voters’ participation and hence participation in the political process of selecting the chief executive,” the association wrote in its submission to the government’s second round of consultation on political reform, which ends on Saturday.

“It may also serve as a means of sending a clear signal to political parties and candidates as to what the electorate thinks about them.”

The blank-vote proposal was first floated by Basic Law Committee member Professor Albert Chen Hung-yee in December to break the political impasse over electoral reform, by allowing the race for the top job to start afresh if more than half of eligible voters choose a “none-of-the-above” option.

The barristers’ professional body also criticised Beijing for having imposed unreasonable restrictions on the city’s first attempt at gaining universal suffrage through the stringent framework laid out in August, saying that it “does not give full effect to the fundamental rights” of Hongkongers to have genuine choice of its leader.