Hong Kong must reach a consensus on political reform, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang said Monday at the opening of a seminar organized by the Task Force on Constitutional Development. More than 100 political leaders and representatives from the business and legal sectors participated in the discussion.

Tsang reiterated that any reform must comply with the decision of the country's top legislature.

Tsang said the task force's third report, published on May 11, established that constitutional development had entered the stage of discussion on concrete proposals.

In spite of different views expressed in the past few months, Tsang said people from all social sectors and the media were encouraged to continue to make use of the freedom-of-speech environment in Hong Kong to express their views.

At the end of the seminar, participants reported that many people shared the view that the size of the Election Committee for the selection of the chief executive in 2007 should be expanded. They also agreed that the electoral base that chooses the Election Committee members--now 165,000 voters--should also be enlarged in order to broaden representation. The majority believed that the number of seats on the Legislative Council should be increased in 2008.

The seminar was divided into five groups for closed-door discussions. At the end, five facilitators presented summaries of the discussions.

Dr. Choi Yuen-wan, one of the facilitators, said that there were strong views in his group that the 100 nominations currently required for a chief executive candidate should be lowered, and that an Election Committee member should be allowed to nominate more than one candidate. "We hope there will be more people who have the heart (to serve Hong Kong) and have the good quality to take part in the election."

Professor K.C. Chan, dean of business and management at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, said there was a suggestion from his group that the 50-50 ratio for legislators from the geographical and functional constituencies be carefully studied with universal suffrage as the ultimate goal. Opinion was expressed that the ratio should remain unchanged for 2008, but the number of legislators chosen by direct election should increase gradually.

Professor Edward Chen, president of Lingnan University, said that his group felt that constitutional development in 2007 and 2008 should take big strides forward. He presented a suggestion that if the Election Committee is expanded, it should be composed of 500 citizens randomly chosen to allow a broad cross-section of society to participate. This idea came from Professor Albert Chen, a legal academic from the University of Hong Kong and a member of the Basic Law Committee.

There was also a suggestion that a chief executive candidate must be backed by 25 electors from each of the four constituencies in the Election Committee to show cross-sectoral support.

Alan Leong, from the Article 45 Concern Group, said after the meeting, "Today, there seems to be a strong consensus that we should design the political reform packages with universal suffrage as the goal by way of broadening the electoral basis."

(China Daily May 25, 2004)