2010 Amendments For LegCo Vote
Key proposals remained unchanged when Chief Secretary Henry Tang unveiled the package to be put before LegCo. He said the government tried to find the "maximum latitude to enhance the democratic elements of the two elections in 2012." He urged legislators to accept this 'golden opportunity' because there was no room for further concessions. Qiao Xiaoyang, head of the NPC's Hong Kong Basic Law committee, said that the passage of the reform package would "create excellent conditions for universal suffrage in the future." Constitutional Affairs minister Stephen Lam insisted the 2012 electoral reform proposal is "more democratic than the 2005 package" rejected by LegCo, and more likely to advance the city's political system if approved. He said that the timetable of universal suffrage in 2017 and 2020 was not ideal, but was "a practical one that is accepted by over 60% of residents."
The 18 remaining pro-democracy legislators intimated their preparedness to vote down the package if no further progress is made on democracy. Civic Party lawmaker Audrey Eu said any reform package that increased the number of functional constituency seats was "regressive and unacceptable"; the Democratic Party counter-proposed that the five additional Legco seats for the district council functional constituency be directly elected by proportional representation instead of block voting. 'Moderate' pan-democrats formed an umbrella group, the Alliance for Universal Suffrage, counting 15 legislators as its members, asked for guarantees of the abolition of functional constituencies before they would accept an increase in the government's proposed district council functional constituencies. Chief Secretary Henry Tang said the government would consider scrapping appointed district councillors if sufficient opposition lawmakers promise to support the 2012 political reform package.
In May, pro-democracy groups were reported to have been in contact with mainland officials for several months to discuss ideas for reform; they quoted officials as saying that a statement on electoral reform beyond 2012 will be made, conditional upon LegCo's approval of the current package. There were highly publicised historical meetings between Beijing representatives and Democratic Party and the Alliance. Four days before the 23 June Legco vote on the reform package, the official stance against the Democratic Party's compromise proposal softened considerably. Following a letter that Donald Tsang had written a letter the previous week to Xi Jinping, the South China Morning Post reported that President Hu Jintao had personally approved the revision, fearing further strengthening of the 'radical' pan-democrats in the event of a stalement. With the Democratic Party support, the revised packages passed through Legco after securing 46 votes on 24 and 25 June. The Civic Party, the League of Social Democrats, and one resigned Democrat opposed the resolutions.
Read more about this topic: Democratic Development In Hong Kong, Post-1997
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