HK democrats exchange views on constitutional reform with leader Tung

HONG KONG, Oct 24 (AFP) - Hong Kong democrats held their "best ever" meeting with embattled leader Tung Chee-hwa on Friday saying they had exchanged frank views on constitutional reform, on which he had promised to follow up.

Democratic Party chairman, Yeung Sum, said the atmosphere at the meeting with Tung had been "quite good" this time round with the two sides exchanging "frank views on constitutional reforms" and direct elections for the chief executive.

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Past meetings between the two sides had generally been tense with relations with Tung hitting an all-time low after huge protests in July, the largest of which saw half-a-million protesters pour onto the streets to slam a national security bill and call for more democracy, a move that rocked the government.

The Democrats had also sent Tung an alternative Policy Address -- ahead of his speech in January -- which had called for constitutional reforms and the balancing of the budget to be delayed to three years instead of the two years proposed by the government.

"We urged Tung to table a paper on political reform by the end of the year ... including whether we should have direct elections for the chief executive in 2007" to give the public sufficient time to discuss the proposals, said Yeung.

Yeung said Tung had been "quite keen" and gave assurances he would follow up on the proposals.

Direct elections for the chief executive are not scheduled to be held before 2007 under Hong Kong's post-1997 constitution, with elections for currently unelected seats in the legislative council to follow a year later.

It was the second meeting between the Democrats and Tung since the protests.

A first meeting on July 29 between Tung and the pro-democracy camp had made little progress on key issues such as a timetable for electoral reform.

An initial security bill, drawn up under Article 23 of the former British colony's post-1997 constitution, was shelved by the chief executive in July in the wake of the street protests.

Tung fully withdrew the bill in early September saying there was no timetable for its re-introduction.

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