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In response to media enquiries on Legislative Councillor Emily Lau's remarks in Radio Television Hong Kong's "Letter to Hong Kong" broadcast earlier today (May 15), a spokesman for the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said:
"The decision adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) in December 2007 has made clear the universal suffrage timetable for Hong Kong, i.e. the Chief Executive (CE) may be elected by universal suffrage in 2017 and the Legislative Council (LegCo) may be elected by universal suffrage in 2020.
In order to pave the way for implementing universal suffrage, the Government put forth a constitutional reform package for 2012. The package was passed by the LegCo in June last year and the relevant amendments to Annexes I and II of the Basic Law were approved or recorded respectively by the NPCSC in August last year. This package greatly enhances the democratic elements of the two electoral methods for 2012 and broadens the room for political participation.
Regarding the CE Election in 2012, the number of members of the Election Committee (EC) will be increased from the current 800 to 1200, making the EC more broadly representative of different sectors of the community. In particular, for the political sector, 117 members will be returned from among elected District Council members, who will be elected by more than 3.43 million voters. This will provide more room for members of the community to participate in the CE election.
Regarding the LegCo Election in 2012, with the introduction of the 'one person, two votes' arrangement in 2012, all registered voters will have one vote in geographical constituency election and another vote in functional constituency election.
The passage of the Chief Executive Election (Amendment) Bill and the Legislative Council (Amendment) Bill by the LegCo on March 3 and 5 this year respectively implements the constitutional reform package.
The HKSAR Government is confident that the fourth CE Election to be held in 2012 will be a contested election. The successful candidate will be able to lead the Hong Kong community in implementing universal suffrage for the Chief Executive in 2017 with the broad support of different sectors of Hong Kong society."
Ends/Sunday, May 15, 2011
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