Hong Kong's government yesterday said it would give the public more time to suggest ways for selecting the city's next political leader in 2007, even though direct election has already been ruled out.
The deadline for a public consultation on political reform was extended by two weeks to Oct. 15 after lawmakers complained the public had not been given enough time, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang (
"We feel that to extend the deadline by two weeks is more reasonable so that will give all legislators ... one month to [respond]," Tsang told reporters at a press conference.
Tsang heads a taskforce charged with gathering proposals for the method of choosing the next chief executive and later, in 2008, the next legislature.
After views have been collected, Tsang will release a report -- the third such publication this year -- which will be passed to the city's rulers in China for further deliberation.
A final decision on how to change the selection process is not expected for at least a year.
The drawn-out process was triggered by provisions in the city's Basic Law, which set a timetable for reform up to 2007 when a successor must be found for the chief executive. Until now the leader has been selected by a Beijing-approved cabal of business and political elites.
The debate, however, quickly bogged down in a blazing row between democrats who favor a swift transition to universal suffrage and Communist Party leaders who oppose it.
Matters came to a head in April when China's parliament stepped into the fray and ruled out elections by 2007, suggesting instead the city introduce other, less radical changes to the selection process. The move sparked widespread uproar in the territory and drew half a million people onto the street on July 1 to denounce it.
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