Beijing will allow Hong Kong to directly elect its leader by 2017 and all its lawmakers by 2020, AP QUOTED China's government and the territory's top government official as saying Saturday. But pro-democracy parties said they were disappointed that Hong Kong's people would not be able to do so sooner. Hong Kong's Chief Executive Donald Tsang said the decision was a «most important step» in the former British colony's political future. Hong Kong currently elects only half its lawmakers. The leader, or chief executive, is chosen by a pro-Beijing committee. The government in Beijing had been debating Hong Kong's political future. The official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday that China would allow direct elections for the chief executive in 2017, with the changes made gradually starting in 2012, the date of the next leadership race. Direct elections for all lawmakers could follow in 2020 at the earliest, Tsang said in announcing Beijing's ruling. A member of the Standing Committee of the People's National Congress _ the lawmaking arm of the Chinese government _ was expected to arrive in Hong Kong within hours to explain the ruling. When Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 it was granted wide-ranging autonomy and a promise that eventually it could directly elect all of its legislators, as well as its leader.
