The government is seeking to stop some foreign consulates from voting in elections for a Legislative Council functional constituency and on the Election Committee, which selects the chief executive.
Officials are in discussion with the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce - the city's largest commerce chamber - to change its membership rules so that its consulate members will not enjoy such voting rights.
This is instead of using a legislative amendment to plug the legal loophole, as the governments frets that might create an opportunity for pan-democrats to seek changes to functional constituency rules.
Controversy has arisen since it emerged that some non-local entities such as the Belgian consulate, Vienna's city representative office and the Xinhua sub-district office of Huadu district in Guangzhou are on the list of eligible voters because of their membership in the chamber.
Under current electoral laws, full chamber members who are entitled to vote at its general meetings are also eligible to vote for one of the two commercial sector seats in Legco as long as they have been operating for the 12 months immediately before registering as a voter.
A total of 1,039 corporations have registered as voters in the functional constituency, while 991 are registered in the corresponding sub-sector in the Election Committee. The chamber currently occupies 12 seats on the 800-strong committee, which will be expanded to 1,200 members before the next chief executive poll in 2012.
While the government was aware of the legal loophole, it was afraid that a proposal to change the law would open a Pandora's box, triggering requests for other amendments to the electoral laws by legislators, especially pan-democrats, a person close to the administration said.
