The other issue people should be discussing is redefining the role and powers of the Chief Executive. Hong Kong is essentially a Presidential system with enormous power vested in the chief Executive who appoints the Cabinet and submits laws to the Legislative Council for adoption. (LegCo can amend legislation but not initiate it.) The panel chosen to pick candidates for Hong Kongs 2017 election could be made more democratic, the territorys leader said on Tuesday, the first indication of a possible concession to pro-democracy protesters who have blocked city streets for weeks. Leung Chun-ying was talking just hours before the start of formal talks between student protest leaders and city officials aimed at defusing the crisis in the former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Theres room for discussion there, he told a small group of reporters. Theres room to make the nominating committee more democratic. In August, Communist Party rulers in Beijing offered Hong Kong people the chance to vote for their own leader in 2017, but said only two to three candidates could run after getting backing from a 1,200-person nominating committee, which happens to be stacked with Beijing loyalists. The protesters decry this as fake Chinese-style democracy and say they wont leave the streets unless Beijing allows open nominations. Discussion of the potential concession from Leung could only start later in the year, however, when the city government launches a new round of consultations for electoral methods, he told reporters in a conference room in his office building. in.reuters/article/2014/10/21/hongkong-china-idINKCN0IA00N20141021
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 11:07:53 +0000
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