Hong Kong government ministers and pro-establishment lawmakers joined a meeting with a senior Chinese official today as part of a consultation into the city’s electoral reforms which appeared to be lacking opposition voices.

Apple Daily saw all 13 heads of policy bureaus arrive for a meeting with Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, in Wan Chai on Tuesday morning.

Commissioner of Police Chris Tang was also seen turning up, along with a number of permanent secretaries from various government departments and former Hong Kong delegates to the state legislature, National People’s Congress.

The legislature might call an extra meeting in April to consider draft laws on the electoral reforms, legislative president Andrew Leung said following the meeting. He pointed out that after March 31, the Legislative Council would not meet for three weeks, but if the government wanted to submit a bill during that time, he was ready to schedule a session.

Leung added that chaos had emerged in Hong Kong over the past five years, and he strongly supported the central government taking action to reform the local electoral system.

The current LegCo is composed of 70 seats. According to a proposal by trade union leader Stanley Ng during the consultation, it should in future have 50 seats filled through the city’s election committee, with another 40 seats equally divided between geographical and functional constituencies.

Candidates for chief executive or for LegCo should be required to obtain nominations from all five sectors of the election committee, said Ng, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions.

Another proposal, submitted by political parties representing the business sector, is to prohibit British National (Overseas) passport holders from running for LegCo.

Pro-establishment lawmaker Michael Tien said he had proposed that disqualified election candidates should be allowed to appeal, and that appeals should be handled by a judge designated to hear national security cases.

The planned reforms stem from a decision passed by the NPC on March 11 that will add a net 20 seats to LegCo, with an unknown number to be filled by the election committee, which in the past controlled only the selection of the chief executive. A candidate qualification review committee will also be set up to screen out candidates who do not conform with the principle of “patriots governing Hong Kong.”

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