Hong Kong justice secretary attempts to calm fears over reform changes

Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung on Monday dismissed concerns over the remarks by a Beijing official that there was no need to promise the chief executive election model could be amended beyond 2017.

Given that the Basic Law already allows for further improvements after universal suffrage is implemented, Yuen said on Monday the making such a pledge in the government's political reform package - for which a draft proposal is expected next month - would create legal problems.

However, he said that the government would explore ways to assure the public, in the form of what he called "explanation by the appropriate authority", that the reform package could be improved in future.

The package must follow a stringent framework laid down by Beijing on August 31 that require aspirants to obtain majority support from a 1,200-strong nominating committee and allow only two or three candidates to compete for the top job.

On Sunday, Zhang Rongshun, vice-chairman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said in Beijing that the central government did not need to make a promise of further changes on universal suffrage beyond 2017.

That raised fears that the stringent framework - under which, pan-democrats maintain, voters would not get a genuine choice of leader - could not be amended.

"I don't think what Mr Zhang said yesterday [Sunday] should cause any alarm or concern on the part of the people of Hong Kong," Yuen said.