Hong Kong's chief executive Donald Tsang said Thursday that a public consultation on long-awaited political reforms would be delayed until later this year because of the financial crisis.
Tsang told lawmakers that discussions over possible new electoral methods for the 2012 chief executive and the legislature votes, originally set for the first half of this year, would be held in the fourth quarter instead.
"Considering that the peak of economic difficulties may appear in the first half of this year and that our main concerns are social and economic problems, the public may not be able to focus their mind on discussing the issues about the political system three years later," he said in a statement.
"Electoral methods in 2012 is a big topic which needs in-depth and sensible discussions in the society… Now is not the ideal time for consultation."
Tsang's government has promised to introduce some reforms for the 2012 elections, but has not revealed what their proposals would be. Previous efforts to introduce adjustments to the system have been voted down.
Beijing has infuriated democracy campaigners in Hong Kong by delaying the introduction of full universal suffrage until at least 2017, 20 years after the territory was handed back to China by colonial power Britain.
Under the handover agreement, Hong Kong was promised universal suffrage but no timetable was set.
Under the current electoral systems, the chief executive is picked by a 800-member, largely pro-Beijing election committee, and only half of the 60 seats in the legislature are directly elected.
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