The SAR government unveiled its comprehensive proposal for universal suffrage on Wednesday. The electoral reform package is based on the Aug 31 decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) and contains specific requirements such as the voting mechanism for the Nominating Committee (NC) to return Chief Executive (CE) candidates for eligible public voters to choose from by universal suffrage. Also, most of the details of the reform proposal conform to Annex I of the Basic Law.

As the election of the CE concerns national security and must be implemented in strict accordance with the Basic Law, the central government would definitely uphold the established principle on political reform and make no compromise that "crosses the line".

Hence, the "pan-democrats" should stop daydreaming of a last-minute concession from the central government. Instead, they should face reality and clear the way for the 5 million eligible voters in Hong Kong to enjoy the right to elect the Chief Executive.

The main content of the reform package is divided into four aspects. The first is to appropriately lower the threshold of recommendations for aspirants at the initial stage, from one out of eight NC members to one out of 10. That means contenders securing a minimum of 120 recommendations from members of the 1,200-strong NC will be eligible to seek nomination.

The second is that each NC member can only recommend one person and the number of recommendations each contender can get will be capped at 240, which means the system could produce five to 10 candidates.

This arrangement is designed to avoid domination by a single aspirant and guarantee that a shortlist of at least five potential candidates can rally support at the next stage of NC nomination.

The third aspect is for the NC members to cast votes of confidence via individual secret ballot for each person seeking nomination.

Each member may vote for all the potential candidates or just some of them. Assuming that 10 persons are campaigning for the nomination, NC members are allowed to cast a maximum of 10 votes of confidence or a minimum of two. Two to three candidates, after securing support from at least half the NC and at the same time receiving the most votes of confidence, will progress to the citywide CE poll, which will be determined by universal suffrage.

Of course, certain quandaries could arise: There may be a tie among those seeking votes for candidacy, no candidate may manage to win approval from more than half the NC, or a candidate may fail to continue the campaign due to personal reasons. It was suggested that such technical issues be dealt with by local legislation.

A number of details within the reform package require thorough discussion. For example, if four persons manage to secure the endorsement of more than half the NC members at the nomination stage, the stipulation of the NPCSC decision that "two to three candidates may run for the CE office" will be challenged, making a decision necessary on whose candidacy would be withdrawn.

Also, assuming three candidates out of these four obtain the same number of votes from NC members, what criteria the NC should adopt to choose the final candidates is an issue that needs to be considered.

All the above-mentioned issues can be addressed either through a revote by the NC or through legislation by the Legislative Council (LegCo). As such, there is ample space for democratic discussion within the reform framework.

Lastly, the "first-past-the-post" voting arrangement commonly adopted in other democratic states would be introduced at the stage of the popular vote, i.e., the candidate with the highest number of public votes in a single round of voting will be elected CE.

Overall, the reform package has two outstanding features that deserve praise. The first is that by placing a cap on NC member recommendations, the government removes the possibility of monopoly by major parties.

Also, it does provide a fair platform for different parties to rally support in the nomination campaign. Moreover, the secret ballot arrangement allowing NC members to support or reject candidates gives the opposition a relatively high chance of securing CE election candidacy.

The two characteristics show that the central government has actually made significant improvements to the reform package. The central government has demonstrated great flexibility in handling the above details and in its commitment to arriving at a reform package as impartial as possible in accordance with the guiding principles.

The reform package can be described as a blueprint that fully reflects democratic principles, for it is perfectly in tune with the reality of Hong Kong as a diverse society and has been tailored to meet the interests of all sectors.

The final reform package fully embodies the sincerity of the central government in honoring its promise of universal suffrage in the 2017 CE election. Opposition lawmakers who have vowed to veto the package should face the fact that they are acting against the will of most Hong Kong residents and denying more than 5 million voters the opportunity to select the next CE by "one person one vote".

The author is a veteran journalist based in Hong Kong.

(HK Edition 04/23/2015 page9)