Executive Councillor Bernard Chan fears that electoral arrangements for 2007 and 2008 could come to a standstill because of opposition from the "pan-democracy camp".

While there will be no universal suffrage, Chan had hoped for more democratic elements in the 2007 and 2008 Chief Executive and Legislative Council elections, but an impasse looks more likely.

"I believe the government will add more democratic elements in the 2007 and 2008 electoral arrangements," he said yesterday. "For the Election Committee that chooses the chief executive, the membership may be expanded from 800 to 1,200 to 1,600, but the number of nominations required of a qualified candidate shall increase accordingly."

For the Legislative Council election, he agreed to increasing the number of seats but said it would be easier to open the door to new functional constituencies rather than reorganizing the existing functional constituencies.

Small and medium enterprises, traditional Chinese medicine, higher education and the District Council constituencies are worth considering but he also suggested a new constituency of financial planners, which is in his opinion a growing profession with close to 50,000 practitioners who acquire their professional status by examination.

"I hope for more democratic elements and do not want to see a standstill. Yet owing to the persistence of some members from the `pan-democracy camp', it looks likely to end up in a deadlock," he said.

Chan commented on Chief Executive Donald Tsang's proposals for the reorganization of the Executive Council. He guessed that Tsang would appoint a few more middle-of-the-road people, be they academics or businessmen, to input their views.

He did not think Tsang would appoint anyone from the "pan-democracy camp" or the Article 45 Concern Group.

But in the opinion of Philip Wong, who is the LegCo representative of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, some principal officials were reluctant to voice their views when there were over 20 people attending the Executive Council meeting.

"This prevented the chief executive from hearing the true and fair views of the principal officials on certain policies," said Wong. "It may be a good idea to reduce the size of the cabinet by not asking all the official members to attend the meetings every week, but the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary and Secretary for Justice who oversee the policy bureaus, must be present at every meeting."

While on the subject of Democratic Party legislator James To's alleged misuse of public money, Wong said he must resign from the legislature and then take on the by-election.

"When he took on the 2004 election, people did not know too much about the saga. As more information is available now, he, as an elected legislator, should step down and let the voters choose again.

"If they pick him again regardless of all the negative news about him, he may carry on but if not, he should go," he said.

(China Daily HK Edition August 10, 2005)