Govt sincere on democracy: Tang

By Joseph Li and Max Kong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-13 09:26

The government has the determination and sincerity to come up with a solution to the constitutional development issue during its term of office, Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang said yesterday.


(From left) Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam, Chief Secretary for Administration Henry Tang and Secretary for Justice Wong Yan-lung explain the details of a report regarding the outcome of a public consultation on constitutional development yesterday. [China Daily]
 

Chief Executive Donald Tsang has already made a request to the National People's Congress Standing Committee to embark on the review of the electoral methods, Tang told the Legislative Council (LegCo) yesterday.

"This represents the utmost sincerity of the chief executive and the government to take forward Hong Kong's democratic development," he said.

The chief secretary was briefing lawmakers on a report the government submitted yesterday to the Standing Committee regarding the outcome of a public consultation on constitutional development in the special administrative region.

The government received 18,200 written submissions and more than 150,000 signatures during the public consultation, he said.

Various political parties and groups in LegCo supported the formation of chief executive nominating committee by 800 or more than 800 members, he told the lawmakers.

For the model forming LegCo, Tang said the community generally hopes progress can be made at an early date regarding the implementation of universal suffrage, and more than half the respondents to different opinion polls hope universal suffrage for the chief executive can precede that for LegCo.

Opinion polls indicate more than half the respondents support the implementation of universal suffrage for the chief executive and LegCo in 2012, he said.

Of the 18,200 written submissions received, about 12,600 submissions supported universal suffrage in 2012. At the same time about 60 percent accepted the implementation of universal suffrage for the chief executive in 2017, if this cannot be attained in 2012.

For LegCo, more than half the respondents accept the implementation of universal suffrage in 2016 or thereafter, if this cannot be attained in 2012.

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