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Beijing will allow Hong Kong to directly elect own leader
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 29 - 12 - 2007


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.


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