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Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam made official announcement on Wednesday that the city's government has got the ball rolling for the consulation of universal suffrage in 2016 and 2017.
Lam said at the meeting of Hong Kong Legislative Council(LegCo) that the first round of the consultation period for the Chief Executive (CE) election in 2017 and the LegCo members in 2016 starts, which will go on till next May.
As the incumber Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying mentioned in October, this is to be performed bythe task force for the consultative work for universal suffrage, led by Lam herself, Secretary for Justice Rimskey Yuen and Raymond Tam, Secretary for Mainland and Constitutional Affairs.
Lam said the task force will look into the core issues that Hong Kong citizens concern, such as the the size, line up and the political background of the nominating committee for CE election, as well as the precise methord of election.
For the LegCo election, the numbers of seats in the council, formation and constituent for functional constitutency and geographical consitituency, and the distribution of of seats in each district will be closely examined.
Lam said, any political reform must be based on the local political system and its history, especially a special place like the Hong Kong SAR with a mix of background.
She noted that the pivot to the success of the upcoming political reform is to secure the passage from two third of the total number of the entire LegCo.
"The political reform propositioni failed in 2005 because it failed to reach the threshold of winning support of two thirds of the LegCo," Lam said, "The proposition finally passed in 2010, and we still need the support of the lawmakers this time to put it through."
She said universal suffrage is a common goal shared by the entire territory, as well as the Central government, which is also a constitutional burden laid down in articles 56 and 64 of the Basic Law, the city's de facto constitution.
She stated that the task force and the government look forward to having frequent exchange of opinions with people from all walks of life. The second stage of consultation is expected to kick off in 2014.
