Ex-Legco head wades into election debate

The debate over the method of selecting the chief executive continued as former Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing responded to former Executive Council member Cheung Chi-kong downplaying the complexities in selecting the city leader through consultations.

Without naming Cheung, Tsang said mockingly in an online program that "a CPPCC member" did not understand how consultations work and had oversimplified the matter.

Cheung, who is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, expressed support for former chief executive Leung Chun-ying's earlier remarks that selecting the chief executive via consultation is viable and could be done if several key figures in Beijing endorsed the idea.

The debate over whether the chief executive should be selected through consultations began on January 18, when Leung said in an interview that the British government could not say that it was "a breach of the Joint Declaration" if the chief executive was selected via consultation, as it was an option listed in Article 45 of the Basic Law.

However, he emphasized that his idea was merely "a suggestion," and did not mean that there was a need to change the current system.