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HONG KONG chief executive Leung Chunying formally asked Beijing today for legal changes that would ultimately let citizens elect their leader for the first time in 2017.
The Beijing-backed chief executive issued a report stating that consultations with nearly 125,000 people and groups in the city had found them “eager” for universal suffrage.
He advised central government that changes to Hong Kong’s constitution were needed for democratic reform.
His report, however, made scant mention of widespread calls to allow the public to put forward candidates without Beijing’s interference.
It suggested that many people were happy to leave it up to an elite nominating committee.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to Hong Kong’s streets a fortnight ago in an annual rally to press for full democracy.
It followed Beijing’s release of a white paper asserting its authority over Hong Kong, which is promised a high degree of control over its own affairs under the “one country, two systems” principle.
