MR CHAN KIN-POR (in Cantonese): President, concerning consultation on constitutional reform, I think the Government should spend more time on formulating a good proposal, rather than proceeding hastily. The SAR Government often emphasizes that it will allow sufficient time for consultation. Can the Secretary explain in detail all the required steps in the consultation on constitutional reform, and explain why there will still be sufficient time for completing consultation even if it commences early next year?
SECRETARY FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AND MAINLAND AFFAIRS (in Cantonese): First of all, I must clarify that the SAR Government has not yet made any decision or announcement on the timeframe for commencing formal consultation, not to mention any commencement of consultation early next year as described by Mr CHAN Kin-por. We have not yet made any decision on an actual timeframe.
Nevertheless, at the request of Mr CHAN kin-por just now, I should perhaps briefly explain the steps required for consultation on constitutional reform. According to the experience of the two major consultation exercises on constitutional reform in the past decade, before the Chief Executive takes the first step to submit a report to the NPCSC and request the activation of constitutional reform procedures under the “five-step mechanism” mentioned in the NPCSC’s decision on 6 April 2004, he will first follow the procedure of consulting the public, as in case of the past two major constitutional reforms.
We published a consultation document at that time to: first, give the necessary background information for public reference; and second, raise a number of open-ended questions and solicit the views of the public and various social sectors. Following this procedure, the Chief Executive would launch the work of the first step based on the outcome of the pre-activation consultation. The second step would be for the NPCSC to make its decision. After a decision is made to activate the constitutional reform procedures, the SAR Government will conduct a second round of consultation.
According to past experience, the second-round consultation will focus on topics with suggested directions or the elements to be included in the future package. After this, the Government will submit a package to the Legislative Council based on the outcome of this round of consultation. This is the third step, and the relevant package must be endorsed by a two-thirds majority of the Members of the Legislative Council. If the package is endorsed, we will take the fourth step, the step of seeking the Chief Executive’s consent. And, the fifth step is to report to the NPCSC for approval and the record.
Following the completion of these five steps, amendments will be introduced accordingly to Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law, and the process of enacting local legislation will then begin. During the enactment of local legislation, we will, as with the formulation of other bills, conduct another round of public consultation to seek the views of various sectors on a number of more specific proposals related to the ordinances requiring amendments, such as the Chief Executive Election Ordinance. At the same time, the passage of the bill by the Legislative Council must be sought. I hope the aforesaid explanation can provide sufficient information for Mr CHAN’s reference.