HONG KONG LEGCO PASSES MINIMAL ELECTION BILL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 001957

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP AND EAP/CM
NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/11/2031
TAGS: PGOV PREL CH HK
SUBJECT: HONG KONG LEGCO PASSES MINIMAL ELECTION BILL


Classified By: E/P Section Chief Simon Schuchat; Reasons 1.4 (b, d)


1. (C) Summary: On May 10, the Hong Kong Legislative
Council (Legco) passed legislation providing minimal,
technical changes to election procedures for the 2007 Chief
Executive (CE) election and the 2008 Legco election. The
bill was passed with 31 votes in favor and 21 opposed, with
one abstention. Of Legco's 25 pan-democrats, 21 voted
against the bill, two moderate independents were absent, and
two other independent democrats refused to attend the voting
session. Passage of the bill was a foregone conclusion
following the May 5 rejection by Legco President Rita Fan of
two proposed amendments, on grounds they were irrelevant to
the subject of the bill and inconsistent with Legco's Rules
of Procedure. Various pan-democrat leaders, while not
surprised by the outcome, observed that the Government had
missed a "golden opportunity" to advance Hong Kong's
democracy through local legislation; they said they now would
focus their efforts on mobilization for their annual July 1
mass demonstration. Following the Legco vote, the
Constitutional Affairs Bureau announced that election of the
800-member Election Committee (EC) would take place on
December 10, 2006 and the CE election would be held on March
25, 2007. Perhaps coincidentally, on May 10, Lu Xinhua, the
PRC Foreign Ministry's Commissioner in Hong Kong, publicly
praised CE Tsang, saying that "I support him serving for five
more years." End Summary.


2. (SBU) On May 10, the Hong Kong Legco passed the "Chief
Executive Election and Legislative Council Election
(Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2006" by a margin of 31 in
favor and 21 opposed, with one abstention. Of Legco's 25
pan-democrats, 21 - including all ten Democratic Party (DP)
and eight Civic Party (CP) members -- voted against the bill,
while two moderate independents (Lau Chin-shek and Joseph
Lee) were absent. Radical democrat Leung Kwok-hung
("Longhair") and independent Albert Cheng strongly criticized
the legislation during the Legco debate and refused to attend
the final voting session.


3. (C) Three features of the legislation were particularly
significant. First, contrary to the past two CE elections in
2002 and 2005, if only one candidate is validly nominated
(i.e., receives at least one hundred nominations from the 800
members of the EC),the election process nevertheless will
continue, essentially providing a "vote of confidence" to the
winner. In the past two elections, when only one candidate -
C.H. Tung in 2002 and Donald Tsang in 2005 - exceeded the
100-vote threshold, the process was halted and that candidate
was declared the victor. Now, a fresh election will be held
if the sole candidate fails to receive more than half of the
valid EC votes. This reform, which copies a system already
in use in Macau, had been advocated as early as the
uncontested election of C.H. Tung to his second term in 2002.
A second provision of the new legislation stipulates that if
the CE office becomes vacant within six months of a scheduled
election, then a special by-election will not be called.
Third, a new CE elected in a by-election may only serve one
more term after completion of the remainder of the current
term. These two provisions were intended, after the fact, to
clarify the circumstances of the current CE's accession to
office after Tung's resignation.

Amendments Rejected
--------------


4. (SBU) Passage of the bill was a foregone conclusion
following the May 5 rejection by Legco President Rita Fan of
two proposed amendments, on grounds they were irrelevant to
the subject of the bill and inconsistent with Legco's Rules
of Procedure. One amendment, offered jointly by Liberal
Party (LP) Chairman James Tien and DP lawmaker Yeung Sum,
would have permitted an elected CE to retain affiliation with
a political party. The other amendment, offered by Yeung
alone, would have placed a cap on the number of nominations a
candidate for CE could receive, presumably ensuring that
multiple candidates could contest the election. Yeung told
the press he was disappointed with Fan's ruling, which he
believed blocked any "democratic expansion," but he
nevertheless respected the President's decision. Similarly,
Tien said he felt "disappointed and helpless," but his party
would accept and respect the determination. Tien added that
the LP would study the possibility of proposing similar
amendments to allow election of a politically affiliated
candidate in the 2012 CE election.

Democrats Critical, Waiting for July 1
--------------


HONG KONG 00001957 002 OF 002



5. (C) Leaders of the pro-democracy camp, while not surprised
by the outcome, still reacted critically to passage of the
legislation. In general, they observed that the Government
had missed a "golden opportunity" to advance Hong Kong's
democracy through local legislation; more fundamental changes
for the 2007 CE and 2008 Legco elections were excluded by
Legco's rejection of the Government's constitutional reform
proposals last December. The pan-democrats also believed
that the new law would not necessarily enhance the CE's
legitimacy or popular mandate. On May 11, pan-democratic
legislator Lee Cheuk-yan of the Hong Kong Confederation of
Trade Unions told poloff that the new bill was "very, very
technical and minimal," especially after the two amendments
had been ruled out by Rita Fan. He said the democrats now
would focus their efforts on mobilizing their supporters for
a large-scale demonstration on July 1 against the lack of
progress toward universal suffrage.


6. (C) On May 11, CP member and City University Professor
Joseph Cheng told poloff that while the democrats had not
held any "high expectations" for the election legislation,
they nevertheless were disappointed that the final version
included "almost no concessions at all" to their concerns.
Cheng believes CE Donald Tsang was "constrained" by the
central government's refusal to offer any more concessions as
punishment to the democrats for their blockage of the
Government's election reform proposals last December. Cheng
said Beijing had "instructed" Tsang to "make a clear
distinction between his friends and his enemies" and that
Tsang therefore wanted to consolidate his alliance with the

SIPDIS
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong
Kong (DAB),which supported the Legco bill.

Government and DAB Criticize Democrats
--------------


7. (SBU) Not surprisingly, both the Government and the DAB
expressed approval for the Legco vote. Secretary for
Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam told the press that the
measure enjoyed "broad public support" in Hong Kong, and that
he hoped the opposition would be more sensitive to mainstream
views. DAB legislator Tam Yiu-chung criticized the
"hypocrisy" of the democrats, who strongly denounced the new
legislation while preparing themselves to participate in the
EC and CE elections. Perhaps coincidentally, on May 10, Lu
Xinhua, the PRC Foreign Ministry's Commissioner in Hong Kong,
publicly praised CE Tsang, saying that "I support him serving
for five more years."


8. (SBU) Following the Legco vote, the Government announced
that the new legislation would take effect with its
publication on May 13. Also, the Constitutional Affairs
Bureau announced that the election of the 800-member EC would
take place on December 10, 2006 (septel) and the CE election
would be held on March 25, 2007.
Cunningham