VZCZCXRO0940
OO RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHHK #1957/01 1310948
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 110948Z MAY 06
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6623
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

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