HONG KONG: The Hong Kong government’s plan to introduce limited political reforms appeared on Tuesday almost certain to be approved after it won the support of a group of pro-democracy lawmakers. The Democratic Party, which holds the swing vote on the issue and is the city’s largest opposition party, agreed to endorse the reform package, which will raise the number of directly elected officials in the city’s legislature. The former British colony, which was returned to China in 1997, has a legal and administrative system independent of mainland China’s but its constitutional development falls under Beijing’s control. Only half of the current 60-seat legislature is directly elected, with the remainder picked by “functional constituencies” based on professions and mainly comprising pro-Beijing elites. Under an original reform plan, the government proposed expanding the number of seats in the legislature to 70, with the new seats equally divided between directly elected and functional constituency seats. However, the Democratic Party had rejected that and proposed the five new functional constituency seats also be directly elected, and it is this package that will be put to the vote on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Democratic Party’s chairman, Albert Ho, said the majority of its members had now agreed that their nine lawmakers should support the revised plan. “We understand there will be different opinions on our decision. We will shoulder the responsibility for our decision,” Ho told reporters. The party and some critics consider the latest development a breakthrough, opening for the first time a channel of communication between Beijing and the city’s democrats, many of whom are banned from travelling to mainland China. However, the latest blueprint has deeply divided the pro-democracy camp, with the hardliners vowing to block it. Martin Lee, the city’s democracy figurehead, has warned he may quit the Democratic Party, which he helped found, in protest at the compromise. Andrew Cheng, one of the party’s lawmakers, said he would vote against the proposal and would also consider quitting the party. The League of Social Democrats, a more radical pro-democracy faction, accused the Democratic Party of betraying Hong Kong’s democratic progress for political interests and said they would end their cooperation with the group. “They have betrayed democracy by striking under-table deals with Beijing,” maverick lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung told AFP. Opposition groups have called on the government to postpone the vote to give the public more time to consider the revised plan. But the government refused to budge. “The reform plan has already undergone a thorough consultation. The government has decided to have the vote conducted as scheduled,” said Stephen Lam, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs. Critics argue that the latest plan does nothing to clarify how and when Hong Kong will achieve universal suffrage, a process dictated largely by Beijing. Beijing has said that, at the earliest, universal suffrage can be ushered in for the election of Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017 and for the legislative assembly in 2020. The city’s leader is chosen by an electoral body whose members are handpicked by Beijing.