The Chief Executive Election and Legislative Council Election (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2006 was submitted to Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) on Wednesday.

Hong Kong Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam said in moving the motion for second reading of the amended bill at a LegCo meeting that the purpose of the bill is to address, through amending the Chief Executive Election Ordinance, some legal and other issues relating to the Chief Executive (CE) election to ensure the smooth conduct of the 2007 CE election.

He said the Paragraph 2 of Article 53 of the Basic Law provides that, in the event that the office of the CE becomes vacant, a new CE shall be selected within six months in accordance with the provisions of Article 45 of the Basic Law.

Lam said the amended bill proposes that if an election for a new term (five-year) CE will be held within six months after a vacancy in the office of the CE has arisen during his term of office, it will not be necessary to hold a by-election.

The bill proposes to provide that the Election Committee (EC) shall be constituted on February 1 in the year in which the term of office of the CE is to expire. Under this proposal, the second EC shall be constituted on Feb. 1, 2007. This arrangement can ensure that the term of the EC will tie in with the five-year term for the CE and the electoral cycle.

The Article 46 of the Basic Law provides that "the term of office of the CE of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be five years. He or she may serve for not more than two consecutive terms". Therefore, the bill provides that a new CE returned in a by-election may only serve for one more term after expiry of the remainder term, and that the remaining term is counted as "a term".

The amended bill also proposes that if only one CE candidate is validly nominated, election proceedings shall continue.

He said the Chief Executive Election Ordinance is a piece of local legislation that provides the legal framework for conducting the CE election. It needs to be consistent with the relevant provisions of the Basic Law, particularly Annex I of the Basic Law that prescribes the specific method for the selection of the CE.

In October last year, the Constitutional Development Task Force ("the Task Force") put forth a package of proposals for the methods for selecting the CE in 2007 and for forming the Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2008. Although the proposed package was supported by a majority of the public and more than half of the LegCo Members, in the end it was not endorsed by a two-thirds majority of all LegCo Members as required in Annexes I and II of the Basic Law.

As the package was not endorsed by the LegCo in accordance with the Interpretation to the relevant provisions of the Basic Law made by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in April 2004, the current electoral arrangements relating to the two elections will still be applicable. In the circumstances, the 2007 CE election will be held on the basis of the existing arrangements and the electorate base will remain unchanged.

However, certain amendments still need to be made to the local legislation to address some legal issues identified in the Fifth Report of the Task Force, as well as the situation where only one candidate for a CE election is validly nominated. Further, legislative amendments are necessary to address some other issues relating to the CE election.

The selecting of the third term of HKSAR Chief Executive will be held in March, 2007.

Source: Xinhua