Poll tells Democrats 'join selection body'
An opinion poll conducted by the Democratic Party said its members should be allowed to join the Selection Committee.
The survey also found that the party should change its stance towards the provisional legislature in return for dialogue with Beijing.
But most of the 500 respondents did not know that one of the functions of the Selection Committee was to choose the provisional legislature.
The results of the survey, conducted last weekend, were consistent with other opinion polls run by several newspapers which called for the party's participation in the 400-strong committee.
The party's secretary-general Dr Law Chi-kwong said the party should do something to respond to public demand on its present Beijing policy.
'Maybe we should run more articles in newspapers and talk more on the electronic media on the reasons behind our decision not to join the Selection Committee, as well as our opposition to the provisional legislature,' he said.
Last night a senior Chinese official questioned the party's plans to mount a legal challenge to the provisional legislature.
The vice-director of Xinhua (New China News Agency), Zhang Junsheng , asked why the Judiciary would have the right to rule on a Chinese Government decision to set up the Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government.
'Anyone who said that has got to have something wrong with them,' he said.
The Democratic Party chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming said at a public forum last Sunday that the party was considering seeking a review to challenge the provisional legislature. He said the party would ask the courts to rule on whether a provisional legislature would contravene the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.
Mr Zhang reiterated Beijing's stance that the Democrats, if they wanted to develop dialogue with the Chinese Government, should follow the principle of 'looking for similarities and allowing minor differences'.
