Mr. Martin Lee, the founding chairman of the Democratic Party, has threatened to resign from the party over the amendment offered by the party.
He criticized the initiative on TV, saying that according to the proposal, everyone may have the right to vote, but there could be tricky mechanisms behind how candidates are nominated and how candidates are selected for election from those nominated.
According to Mr. Lee, Hong Kong civilians will be left with no other choice but to choose from puppets designated by the Beijing authorities.
Audrey Eu, leader of the Civic Party spoke in milder tones than Mr. Lee, but nonetheless strongly objected to the Democratic Party’s action. “Most members felt it is not the direction we should go. Many people worried it will deviate from the path of universal suffrage.”
The long-term goal of democracy activists has been universal suffrage, which means nomination and direct election of the chief executive and Legco members by the people of Hong Kong on the principle of one man-one vote.
In 2007 the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPCSC) had decided that Hong Kong could not have universal suffrage in its 2012 elections, but held out the possibility of universal suffrage for the 2017 election for the chief executive and for the 2020 elections for Legco.
Since the 2007 NPCSC decision, Hong Kong’s democracy activists have sought to establish a firm timetable for achieving universal suffrage. The first step toward that goal was understood to be the end of functional constituencies.
Functional and Geographic Constituencies
Legco is split between members drawn from either functional constituencies or geographical constituencies, with 30 members from each type of constituency for a total of 60 members.
The functional constituencies each represent members of a profession or special interest group that has been designated as important, such as banking or real estate development. Each geographical constituency represents a district in Hong Kong.
According to the current electoral law, candidates for the functional constituencies are nominated by the members of the relevant profession and the candidacy of a nominee is approved by the Executive Council, which is understood to be controlled by the Chinese communist regime. Out of Hong Kong’s 3.4 million qualified voters, only 230,000 have been allowed to vote for those running for a seat in a functional constituency.
By contrast, the members of the geographical constituencies are nominated by the people of Hong Kong and voted on by all registered voters.
Because Beijing in effect has a veto over who could run for a functional constituency seat, the 30 functional constituency seats in Legco have provided a dependable vote for the Chinese regime. The democratic parties in Hong Kong have typically had around 24 out of the 60 seats, assuring the pro-Beijing members would dominate the assembly.
Reform Proposal
The administration’s reform proposal was to add five new seats in functional constituencies and five new seats in geographical constituencies, and to raise the number of those who are allowed to vote for Hong Kong’s chief executive from 800 to 1,200. The proposal would take effect in the 2012 elections.
In the original proposal, the members for the functional constituencies, which would represent Hong Kong’s District Councils, would be elected by the members of the District Councils, in line with how members for other functional constituency seats have been chosen.
The Democratic Party offered as an amendment that the members for the five new functional constituency seats would be chosen by direct election of all of Hong Kong’s electorate, except for the 230,000 who have the right to vote in other functional constituency elections.
Excepting those 230,000 was necessary in order for the amendment to comply with the NPCSC decision banning universal suffrage in the 2012 election.
By giving all Hong Kong voters (except for the 230,000 voters of the traditional functional constituencies) the right to vote for those running for the five new functional constituency seats, the Democratic Party argues the amended proposal moves Hong Kong closer to the goal of universal suffrage.
The administration accepted the Democratic Party’s amendment on the condition that the party deliver 9 votes for the amended proposal.
How the nominees for the five new functional constituency seats will be chosen is not clear. Approximately three-fourths of the District Council members are appointed by the administration. If the nominations for the five new functional constituency seats are conducted in the same way as those for the other functional constituency seats, the administration would be assured that those it has appointed would decide who would be nominated.
The precise mechanisms for choosing nominees will not be known until Hong Kong’s chief executive Donald Tsang introduces a bill in Legco on Wednesday.
Opposition
Opposition to the proposal has been widespread among members of Hong Kong’s democratic parties. The League of Social Democrats, the Neighborhood and Workers Service Centre, the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade, and Civic Act-up, all announced that they would vote “No” on the proposal.
In addition, Hong Kong’s Cardinal Zen Ze-kiun announced that he would not support the Democratic Party’s plan.
The Post-80’s Youth against Unrightful Authority, the Hong Kong Federation of Students and 25 other organizations issued a joint statement opposing the proposal.
According to the statement, the proposal is the product of a black box operation between the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], the Hong Kong government, and the Democratic Party. The statement also said that to forcibly pass the plan is an insult to democracy and asked Hong Kong to withdraw the plan, postpone the vote, and explain more to the public.
The members of the 27 organizations plan on encircling the Legco building on Wednesday.
Endorsing Functional Constituency
The political commentator Li Zi believes that the Democratic Party is naïve in its dealings with the CCP. “They thought that they had achieved what they wanted, but they are endorsing the value of the existence of functional constituency,” he said.
Albert Lam is a central committee member of the Democratic Party who, like Mr. Lee, opposes the proposal.
“The CCP may decide to optimize functional constituency. … It will be the same as the election system in mainland China, in which all candidates have been screened, to make sure they are followers of the CCP!”
“No matter how hard the Democratic Party tries, it would only constitute less than 50 percent of Legco. Without much right to speak, and the legislative authority in the hands of CCP, the plan proposed by the Democratic Party has no way to lead us to universal suffrage; on the contrary, it has helped with the intention of the CCP to keep the functional constituency,” Mr. Lam said.
The Democratic Party has been the leading reform party in Hong Kong. According to Li Zi the Democratic Party’s action in supporting the administration proposal has been “political suicide.”
Li Zi believes the Chinese regime wants an electoral reform proposal to be passed because of a trade agreement with Taiwan scheduled to be signed in late June. The agreement is modeled on the Hong Kong-China trade agreement, and the Chinese regime wants to demonstrate to Taiwan that the “one country-two systems” policy used to rule Hong Kong works, Li Zi says.
The reform proposal needs 40 votes, or two-thirds of the Legco assembly, to pass. Donald Tsang says he does not know whether the administration has the necessary votes. The Democratic Party holds 9 seats and the functional constituencies control 30 seats. The vote on Wednesday promises to be interesting.
Reporting by Sharon Xu.
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