(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-01-03 10:09

Savantas Policy Institute Chairperson of Board of Governors Regina Ip described the decision by the national legislature as " the most important milestone" in the constitutional development of HKSAR.

"The society should stand together with one accord to promote the constitutional development in a steadily manner," Ip said.

Chairman of the Basic Law Institute Alan Hoo said any discussion on universal suffrage in Hong Kong should be based on the Basic Law, adding "we should have confidence in ourselves and redouble our efforts to reach the consensus for a way to implementing the universal suffrage in Hong Kong."

Timothy Ka-ying Wong, the associate director of Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies with the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the NPC Standing Committee's decision accorded with the institute's poll.

"It shows the central authorities have taken into full account the Hong Kong people's wishes for a universal suffrage timetable," Wong said, adding "the decision was accepted by the mainstream public opinions in Hong Kong."

"What the Hong Kong society has to do is to plan for details and seek consensus based on the decision," he noted.

Prof. Albert Chen, Faculty of Law of the University of Hong Kong, said the decision by the NPC Standing Committee to make the arrangement for universal suffrage timetable has the authoritativeness and legal validity and it would greatly boost the democracy and constitutional development in Hong Kong.

To achieve universal suffrage, Chen said, Hong Kong needs to finish the legal procedures and lay foundation for selecting Chief Executive through universal suffrage in 2017 by making appropriate amendments to election methods in 2012.

"Universal suffrage must be attained in a gradual and orderly progress, which is stipulated in the Basic Law," Chen said.

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