I hate my government. I really do.
HONG KONG (AFP) – China’s parliament ruled out giving the people of Hong Kong the right to elect their chief executive in 2007 and legislature in 2008 by universal suffrage, a parliamentary delegate said.
Tsang Hin-chi, who represents Hong Kong in the Chinese parliament, known as the National People’s Congress, told reporters in Beijing the decision was made at a meeting of the parliament’s standing committee which finished Monday.
“The Hong Kong chief executive in 2007 will not be selected by universal suffrage…the entire legislature also will not be selected by universal suffrage in 2008,” he said.
Currently the territory’s chief executive is picked by an 800-member election committee that answers to Beijing and oversees a legislature in which only 30 of the 60 members are directly elected.
Tsang said 30 of the legislative members will still be elected by the Hong Kong people as it currently stands in the Basic Law, the mini-constitution.
Tsang said that any electoral changes must come in a “gradual and orderly manner”.
The decision is likely to draw fierce criticism from democrats who believe the principle of universal suffrage by 2007 is enshrined in the Basic Law.
The legislative maneuverings follow a heated debate in Hong Kong on when to introduce full democracy in the former British colony, which was handed back to communist China in 1997.
The NPC panel ruled in its last meeting two weeks ago that it held the ultimate say on any electoral reforms in Hong Kong.
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 
Post-Mortem in HK
I hate my government. I really do. Glutter says all that needs to be said in this post-mortem. But Conrad adds just one more: I can only make KX so black before it’s unreadably black and red.
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Post-Mortem in HK
I hate my government. I really do. Glutter says all that needs to be said in this post-mortem. But Conrad adds just one more: Oh well, what the fuck. It’s only a constitution. I can only make KX so black
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