If the goal of the charter revision is, he says, to pump up voter participation, then why not expand Election Day to a three-day event?
But there will be great pressure to accommodate popular demands, by expanding local elections, letting workers take grievances to court, and broadening outlets for dissent.
Mr. Hu may also consider allowing people to begin choosing township or county leaders, expanding local elections that have been permitted at the village level for many years.
"This nominating process needs reform," said Li Fan, an academic in Beijing who has promoted expanding direct elections and advised different independent candidates around the country.
Legislation in Congress to expand federal election laws to require more disclosure of tax-exempt groups has met with little success.
One is to expand the Election Committee, which chooses the chief executive and now consists of just 800 prominent citizens, most of whom have ties to the mainland.
Mr. Li told China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, that while some people wanted to expand direct elections, he believed that the priority was to improve on the so-called election system now in place.
