Top Hong Kong adviser warns against democracy referendum

Jan 22, 2010, 10:12 GMT

Hong Kong - The head of Hong Kong's Executive Council warned five pro-democracy politicians on Friday that their plan to force a referendum on universal suffrage was unconstitutional.

Leung Chun-ying - convenor of the Executive Council, the chief executive's handpicked inner circle of advisers - said the move would contravene the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

Five members of the city's Civic Party and League of Social Democrats plan to resign next week to force by-elections that they said would be a means of gauging the appetite for democracy in the city of 7 million people.

The step was being taken in response to government proposals for electoral reform in 2012, which pro-democracy parties said do not go far enough toward direct representation.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, currently has limited democracy with half its 60 legislators directly elected and no popular vote for the position of chief executive.

Speaking on government-run radio station RTHK, Leung said such a move would contravene the Basic Law, the constitution which Hong Kong adopted when it returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

'It is unnecessary and it is confusing and many members of the pan-democratic camp think it unnecessary,' Leung said. 'I don't think it is getting the support of even members of the pan-democratic camp.'

The legislators who plan to resign say they have taken the 'extraordinary step' as a fair means to gauge public opinion on democracy.

Hong Kong is technically entitled to universal suffrage from 2007 under the terms of the Basic Law.

However, Beijing has intervened to say there can be no full democracy until at least 2020, arguing that the city is not yet politically mature enough for universal suffrage.

An estimated 30,000 people took part in a march to the Beijing Liaison Office in Hong Kong on January 1 to demand full democracy. The march ended with scuffles between some protestors and police.