HK's Tsang open-minded about a contested election

HONG KONG, Oct 12 (Reuters) Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang, widely expected to seek re-election, said today he would like to see a contested election in March to select a new chief executive, although he declined to say if he would run.

Last year, the Beijing-backed Tsang was returned unopposed to his post, with opposition figures unable to even get on the ballot due to election rules heavily stacked in Beijing's favour.

But Tsang said this time around he was open-minded about having a proper electoral contest -- a move which, if realised, could be seen as a small democratic concession by Beijing.

''I think people ... wish to have a contest during the Chief Executive election. I'm repeating, regurgitating what people believe in, a feeling that I share, personally share,'' he said.

Hong Kong's leader is picked by a committee of 800 electors, and it takes nomination by 100 of those electors to get on the ballot. Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, says the territory should eventually adopt a system of universal suffrage.

Beijing, though, has ruled out universal suffrage in Hong Kong in the coming few years, despite widespread public support, and the democratic camp has called for direct elections by 2012, the next possible window.

Tsang is considered a shoo-in for the post, although he has yet to formally announce his candidacy, and a day after delivering his policy address said he had not made up his mind on whether to run.

''The election has its own timetable, people must not jump the gun and you must not force me to do so,'' he told foreign media in a briefing a day after his policy address.

''Don't over-interpret that I'm running.'' The fractious Democratic camp has pledged to put forward a cross-party candidate to run in the election next March. They say a contested election would force greater accountability on any new leader to table a better policy platform.

While Tsang avoided the hot-button issue of constitutional reform and universal suffrage in his speech on Wednesday, he said the government was looking at democracies in Asia like Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan for guidance on the way forward.

''Examples elsewhere have told us that we need to be very careful,'' he said, adding that Hong Kong would most likely have to come up with a model of its own.

''None of them seems to be fully palatable from our point of view.'' REUTERS DKB DS1355