HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s legislature on Friday agreed to add 10 elected seats, completing a set of Beijingbacked electoral changes that critics have said reinforce the territory’s undemocratic political system.
The legislators approved the proposed changes by a vote of 46-12, concluding a three-day marathon debate. On Thursday, they cleared a measure that expands Hong Kong’s leader-selection committee from 800 to 1,200people for the 2012 election cycle.
Hong Kong’s Beijing-appointed government has billed the proposals as a form of democratization in the semiautonomous territory, but critics have said they only beef up an electoral system skewed in favor of the Chinese government.
“This is the darkest day in the history of Hong Kong’s development of democracy,” opposition legislator Albert Chan shouted in the legislative chamber after the changes were passed.
Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang was able to secure passage of both bills by winning over the former British colony’s leading opposition, the Democratic Party. Tsang agreed to a proposal by the Democrats that the 10 new legislative seats be put to a popular vote.
The current 60-member Legislative Council is halfelected, half chosen by professional and business sectors, many of which are loyal to Beijing.
Front Section, Pages 10 on 06/26/2010