Opening up the Nominating Committee (NC) for
the Chief Executive (CE) election in 2017 to public participation and making it
more democratic is a key reform that Hong Kong should focus on, says a Group of
13 (G-13) scholars. Efforts in this direction will not only meet the constitutional
and legal requirements on Hong Kong’s political reform, but also address the strong
demand for public participation in the nomination of CE candidates.
Democratizing the NC is
also a way to strike a compromise amongst different and polarizing political
demands, and help to create an opportunity for Hong Kong’s electoral reform to
get through the “Five Step Process”, particularly in securing support from both
the Legislative Council and from Beijing, thus making universal suffrage in the
election of Hong Kong’s CE in 2017 a reality.
“The selection of the Chief
Executive in 2017 through universal suffrage and the continuing development of
our political system are critical, otherwise Hong Kong will become increasingly
impossible to govern. Failure to make progress will punish everyone – the
establishment, the pan-democrats, all political parties, the people, Hong Kong
itself, and even the long-term interests of our country”, says Prof Richard Wong,
a member of the G-13 Scholars.
The G-13 Scholars’ latest proposals ask for
doubling the size of the existing Election Committee from 1,200 members to form
a new NC of 2,400 members, with all the new members elected directly by
registered voters in Hong Kong. These 1,200 new members will have to first seek
endorsement from the sectoral voters of the existing four sectors, and second
to get 1,200 votes from registered voters in Hong Kong. Endorsement by 50
sectoral voters is required for candidates in the First, Second and Third sectors,
while endorsement by 5 sectoral voters is required in the Fourth sector.
There are now close to 250,000 sectoral
voters in the four sectors of the Election Committee. The purpose of asking the new,
popularly-elected members of the NC to seek endorsement from existing sectoral
voters is to make the new NC similar in structure to the old Election Committee.
This is one of the requirements for Hong Kong’s electoral reform set down by the
Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), in line with the
principle of gradual progress.
In the Fourth Sector of the existing
Election Committee, the number of sectoral voters is relatively small as they
include only existing Legislative Council members, existing deputies to the NPC
and the Chinese People Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC), and Heung Yee
Kuk and District Council members. The G-13 proposes that new sectoral voters be
added, comprising all retired Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries and directorate
civil servants, retired members of the Executive Council and the Legislative
Council, retired deputies to the NPC and CPPCC, and people on the honours list
since 1997, and Unofficial Justices of Peace.
“It should be noted that we are proposing
to add these new members into the list of sectoral voters in the Fourth Sector
only, not as NC members. The key idea of this proposal is that these people
have contributed to Hong Kong in many ways in the past, and they should be
given a role to play in endorsing candidates who want to bid for seats in the Fourth
Sector of the NC”, say Ms Lau Pui-king, another G-13 member.
Another important and contentious debate in
Hong Kong’s current political reform is how the NC would put forward CE
candidates for the public to vote. The G-13 proposes that any contender could
be considered for candidacy if he/she could get nominated by 10% of the NC
members, and will become a potential candidate if he/she gets 20% of the votes.
These percentages are based on the view that there should be 2 to 4 candidates
for the CE election, a number arrived at after extensive consultations by the
government.
A new concept introduced by G-13 is that
all contenders for candidacy who get pass the 20% votes threshold will go into
a “list”. The NC will then vote on the “list” so that all candidates on the “list”
will become CE candidates if the “list” is passed by majority vote of the NC.
“The idea of a ‘list’ comes from our
observation that Art 45 of the Basic Law requires the NC to nominate CE
candidates ‘in accordance with democratic procedures’”, explains Prof Sung
Yun-wing, another G-13 scholar. “Democratic procedures normally require
majority vote. But if the NC is to vote on each and every candidate, then it is
likely that contenders who represent minority interests will have very little
chance of becoming a CE candidate. The use of a ‘list’ could allow all contenders
with 20% NC votes to get majority support from the NC. This is more in line
with Hong Kong’s political reality.”
If the “list” is not approved by the NC,
then the selection process is repeated. If necessary, new rules could be
introduced that would encourage competing political forces to cooperate or
increase their costs of refusing to compromise, thus helping to produce a “list”
that has a higher chance of being approved. For example, the 20% and 50%
thresholds could be raised gradually.
“Any scheme that screens candidates
unreasonably will have very little chance to get through the ‘Five Step
Process’. Our design of how the NC is constituted and how the NC nominates CE candidates
is fully compliant of all legal requirements, and should make it acceptable as
a compromise between the political left and the political right. Our proposal
should also be looked at as another important step forward in Hong Kong’s
continuing democratization process”, added Prof Liu Pak-wai, another G-13 scholar.
Political
reform in Hong Kong is now moving into the second step of the “Five Step
Process”. The Standing Committee of the NPC (NPCSC) is expected to decide in late-August
whether to accept the recommendation by the CE on whether the rules for the
appointment of the CE and of the Legislative Council should be amended. It is
unclear at this stage whether the NPCSC would set guidelines for such
amendments and what these guidelines may be.
“Hong
Kong needs more time and space for different political forces to exchange views
and reach consensus in the political reform debate. We hope that the NPCSC
would allow more flexibility in its upcoming decision so that Hong Kong could
better implement the NPCSC decision that Hong Kong could elect its CE through universal
suffrage in 2017”, says Prof Richard Wong.
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Notes to Editors:
The G-13 Scholars are Prof FAN Yiu-kwan,
Prof HO Lok-sang, Mr HUANG Yin, Hanson, Dr KWAN Pun-fong, Vincent, Mr KWOK
Kwok-chuen, Ms LAU Pui-king, Dr LAW Cheung-kwok, Prof LIU Pak-wai, Prof LUI Ting-ming,
Francis, Dr LUK Michael, Prof SUNG Yun-wing, Prof WONG Yue-chim, Richard and
Prof YEUNG Yue-man.
The G-13
Proposal website: http://2017cenom.blogspot.hk/
