Political reform consultation could resume this month, Carrie Lam says

The city will resume soliciting views about electoral reform at the end of the month at the soonest, but there is "no room for dialogue" with student protest leaders unless their views are "related" to the agenda the government is setting for the exercise, acting Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor says.

Lam noted that the Federation of Students, which had proposed conditions to end the Occupy Central protest action, was seeking a meeting with central government officials.

"If they are going to Beijing only to repeat their views, there seems to be no need to do so," she said. "But if they have new views about what to do next with the political reform, especially views that are related to the second round of the consultation, we will always welcome them."

The government would start the next public consultation at the end of the month or early next month, she added.

Hongkongers will again get to offer views on how they want to select the Legislative Council in 2016 and the chief executive in 2017, after the first round, lasting five months, ended in May.

For the upcoming exercise, the government is mulling the idea of proposing a low entry threshold so more chief executive hopefuls can qualify for a nominating-committee ballot that precedes the "one person, one vote" public election.

This may give pan-democrats a chance to contest the race, although Beijing's requirement for hopefuls to secure majority support from the committee will be a major hurdle in proceeding to the public vote.

Lam, who is acting chief executive while Leung Chun-ying is in Beijing to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, spoke a day after the federation wrote to Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, the city's sole representative in the National People's Congress Standing Committee, which laid down the election framework in August. The federation asked Fan to help set up a meeting with state officials, after former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa turned down its request.

It is seeking a withdrawal of the August decision and public nomination for the 2017 chief executive election.

But neither demand was in line with the Basic Law, Lam said.

"In the previous talks, the [Hong Kong] government has shown the greatest sincerity," she said. "But the federation did not demonstrate the same sincerity. On the other hand, it toughened its stance afterwards … I feel there is no room for dialogue for the time being."

Lester Shum, the federation's deputy secretary general, said he did not understand why Lam was accusing them of having toughened their stance. "Our calls to fight for public nomination - or at least draw up a road map for it - have been consistent," he said.

Fan was out of town and would respond to the federation's letter when she returns next week, her assistant said.