China on Saturday ruled full democracy in Hong Kong by 2012 but flagged universal suffrage for 2017 in a long-awaited decision on democratic reform for the former British colony, officials said.
The decision is likely to upset democrats who had been pushing for 2012 as a deadline for changes in the way the chief executive and the legislature are chosen in the Asian financial hub.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (China’s parliament) released its decision on Saturday after a report on reform was submitted by Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang.
The committee decided that direct election of Hong Kong chief executives and the entire legislature “in the year 2012 shall not be implemented by the method of universal suffrage”, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Universal suffrage was guaranteed in the “Basic Law” that was established when colonial power Britain handed the territory back to China in 1997, but no timetable was set.
Currently, only half of the 60-member legislature is directly elected, while the rest of the seats are held by representatives of various business and professional groups, mostly loyal to Beijing.
The chief executive, Hong Kong’s leader, is chosen by an 800-member committee of mostly Beijing supporters.
China retains the rights to have the final say on any political reforms in the territory.
In his report, Tsang shied away from setting a timetable for reform, but he told a press conference on Saturday that the committee’s decision was positive.
Tsang said Saturday’s ruling meant one-man, one-vote was possible to elect Hong Kong’s leader by 2017 and all legislative council members “may be” elected by universal suffrage by 2020. — AFP