| Government's response to remarks by Mrs Anson Chan concerning the Green Paper on Constitutional Development |
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Regarding media enquiries about the Government's response to remarks made by Mrs Anson Chan today (July 23) concerning the Green Paper on Constitutional Development (the Green Paper), a Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau spokesman made the following response: "The Green Paper has outlined key issues concerning the implementation of universal suffrage in a systemic manner, and the content is by no means confusing. "The fact that the HKSAR Government has issued the Green Paper 11 days after inauguration on July 1 underlines the commitment of the Government to resolve the issue of universal suffrage within the five-year term. "To facilitate public discussion, we have categorised the proposals received and presented them in the Green Paper as three types of options for implementing universal suffrage for electing the Chief Executive (CE) and for forming the Legislative Council (LegCo) respectively. We have presented the most crucial elements of the two electoral methods in the Green Paper systematically. These are the critical questions that need to be addressed. Members of the public can discuss and make choices on the different options and timetable for implementing universal suffrage. "As a matter of fact, the public only need to make choices on the key issues, for example, the number of members of the nominating committee, the number of CE candidates to be put forth for election by universal suffrage, how the functional constituencies can be replaced, and the timetable for implementing universal suffrage. "In the coming few months, we will engage LegCo and all 18 District Councils in discussing the Green Paper. Members of the community have been invited to forward their views and proposals to us. We will also seek to enhance community participation by organising forums which are open to public." Ends/Monday, July 23, 2007 |