Hong Kong debates major election reform

World Today

Members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, or LegCo, are debating a political reform package on Wednesday that will change the way in which the city’s leader is chosen. The political reform package will allow about five million eligible voters in Hong Kong to choose their leader for the first time.

ballot

Under the blueprint, two or three chief executive candidates will be selected by a 1,200-strong nominating committee to go forward for the public ballot.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has been calling on lawmakers to pass the package. On Tuesday he said that the plan had the biggest possibility of winning over two-thirds of the Legislative Council.


“One Man one Vote” debated in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong legislature has begun debating the largest democratic reform plan in Hong Kong’s history. Lawmakers will vote on a motion to amend the Basic Law, and grant universal suffrage – that’s one person, one vote, for every adult resident. The final vote by lawmakers will be held no later than Friday. CCTV America’s Li Jiejun filed this report from Hong Kong.

 


Fred Teng on Hong Kong’s electoral reform
For more insight of the crucial vote of the electoral reform plan and Hong Kong’s electoral reform in a broader sense. CCTV-America spoke to Fred Teng. He is the president of America China Public Affairs Institute.


Opponents argue that the candidates are chosen by a “pro-Beijing” election committee, while supporters say it’s an opportunity to bring universal suffrage to Hong Kong.

The vote is due to take place on Thursday or Friday. For the proposal to go through, two thirds, or 47, of the council members must vote for it. Recent polls suggest the majority of Hong Kong’s residents support the proposals.

Around 47 percent of Hong Kong residents say they support the reform plan while 38 percent of people oppose it, according to a tracking poll released by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on Wednesday.

Some 200 police officers are deployed inside the LegCo building as lawmakers are debating the political reform package. Meanwhile, the LegCo has adopted tight security measures after police busted a radical group who had allegedly planned to set off explosives during the debate.

Some 200 police officers have been deployed inside the council complex and another 1,000 are patrolling outside the building after police assessed that radicals were likely to storm the building.

Story by CCTV News