Political reform in Hong Kong may be deferred for 10 years, warns Liberal Party chief
Liberal Party chief warns that popular vote for chief executive could be deferred if pan-dems maintain their blocking vote in next year's poll
No blueprint on electoral reform will be retabled within 10 years if pan-democrats can maintain the power to vote it down as the critical minority in the legislature after the 2016 Legislative Council elections, warned a pro-business political party chief.
As the government proposal for the 2017 chief executive election is set to be voted down in the legislature in two weeks, Liberal Party chairman Felix Chung Kwok-pan said the result of next year's Legco vote would be the key to decide when the reform would be rolled out again.
"I believe the issue will not be touched for a period of time after it has been voted down. We will only see how it goes after knowing the result of the 2016 Legco election," he said.
The passage of the reform requires support from two-thirds of 70 lawmakers, meaning that at least four out of 27 pan-democratic lawmakers need to make a U-turn.
They have repeatedly vowed to oppose the blueprint because they say the stringent framework laid down by Beijing in August last year will fail to give Hongkongers a genuine choice in the 2017 poll.
We will only see how it goes after knowing the result of the 2016 Legco election
"If the pro-establishment camp could gain four more seats, a blueprint in accordance with the August 31 decision [by the National People's Congress Standing Committee on political reform] might be put forward again," Chung said.
"If the pan-democrats could maintain their veto power, I believe there would be nothing in the coming 10 years."
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said earlier that his administration would set aside the political reform controversy and instead focus on economic development and livelihood issues.
Moderate pan-democratic lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah, who reiterated that he would reject the current blueprint, described the government bid to get the reform passed as "all but dead".
Elsie Leung Oi-sie, vicechairwoman of the Basic Law Committee, said she believed the political reform would not be relaunched before 2017 if the current proposal was rejected.
"The decision [on the reform framework] has been made. If lawmakers decide not to accept this, the National People's Congress Standing Committee will not force them to accept," said Leung.
She also said the central government would not accept public nomination - a core demand by the pan-democratic camp - even if it is raised "100 more times" because it was not allowed in the city's miniconstitution.
Speaking after a forum in Hong Kong yesterday, Tsinghua University law dean Professor Wang Zhenmin said Beijing would not punish Hong Kong people even if the reform was blocked by several lawmakers.
