【明報專訊】Pro-establishment politicians

Deputy chairman of the DAB Horace Cheung (民建聯副主席張國鈞) argues that popular nomination goes against the Basic Law (《基本法》) and that people should not waste their time discussing anything unworkable.

The Liaison Office

The Liaison Office of the Central Government (中聯辦) is strongly opposed to the popular nomination idea. Director of the Liaison Office Zhang Xiaoming (中聯辦主任張曉明,) criticises the idea as flying in the face of the Basic Law, which states, "The ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures."

Deputy director of the Liaison Office Huang Lanfa (中聯辦副主任黃蘭發) argues that allowing citizens to nominate CE candidates amounts to sidelining the nominating committee mentioned in the Basic Law.

The HK government

The HK government has not commented on the popular nomination idea. Though there have been ongoing calls for it to start a public consultation exercise on the 2017 election as soon as possible, it has yet to come up with a timetable for dealing with the issue.

Scholarism

Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), one of Scholarism's leaders, contends that pan-democrats should aim high when they strive for real democracy. In a radio programme alongside veteran democrat Albert Ho, Wong said many young people were determined to join Occupy Central and risk being jailed because they craved real democracy and pan-democrats should not let them down by being content with an electoral system under which their candidacy would be guaranteed.

Pan-democrats

Albert Ho (何俊仁), whose Democratic Party (民主黨) has declined to sign Scholarism's charter, says that, though he personally supports popular nomination, pan-democrats have to face the reality. It is hard enough to persuade Beijing to allow them to stand in the 2017 election. He thinks popular nomination should be viewed as an "ideal", but not the primary goal pan-democrats should strive for.

The Civic Party, however, is a signatory to Scholarism's charter. Its chairwoman Audrey Eu (余若薇) says it is important for Hong Kong to have a sustainable political system. She argues that pan-democrats who aim only for their candidacy in the 2017 CE election are fighting for their own interests rather than Hong Kong's.