And for Legco to block government legislation, a simple majority is not sufficient: there must be a separate majority in the 30 functional constituencies.
Two years ago China announced that Hong Kong could have universal suffrage for the election of its chief executive in 2017 and of Legco in 2020.
In the future, looking beyond 2017, one of the ways in which the composition of the Nominating Committee may change gradually is when more and more of its ex-officio members, for example, the members of the LegCo and the district councils, are elected by universal suffrage.
He mostly ignores Legco and has brought almost all policymaking into his own office.Nor does his government tolerate criticism.
By excluding Leung and Yau from Legco Beijing hoped to nip Hong Kong's independence movement in the bud, she said.
But he will remain a member of Legco and, he promises, will go on travelling the world to protest at the erosion of political rights in Hong Kong.
Yet rigged electoral rules ensure that these will be in a minority in the new Legco, and that a pro-Beijing majority can always be counted on by the administration of Tung Chee-hwa.
Lo, the academic, said he did not expect the older, mainstream generation of democrats such as Ho, Lau and Martin Lee to "fade away completely in the political arena" having stepped down from Legco and predicted they would continue to serve as key intermediaries between the pro-democracy camp and the government.
A government green paper is to be produced later this year, listing three routes to the "ultimate aim" promised in the Basic Law the mini-constitution for Hong Kong promulgated in 1990 of "universal suffrage" for both Legislative Council (LegCo) and chief-executive elections.The sooner the argument is settled in favour of representative democracy the better.
She formerly served as the president of Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo), and currently she's a member of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress.
