Principal officials can retain their political memberships, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam says, adding the coming Chief Executive election will be conducted in a fair, open, clean and law-abiding manner.

He told reporters today according to the Basic Law and Hong Kong laws, principal officials can retain their political memberships after taking up the appointments. When Henry Tang was appointed the Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology in 2002, he did retain his Liberal Party membership, he added.

To allow room for the grooming of political talents and to draw more talents joining the Government, Mr Lam stressed it is necessary to open up both the hardware of the electoral systems and the software of political appointments.

"We will then be able to reflect more fully, and more completely, the views of the community in terms of policy formulation and in terms of overall governance," he added.

On the coming Chief Executive election, Mr Lam said any elections held in Hong Kong are law-abiding and arrangements are in place to ensure secrecy in balloting. Election Committee members can cast their votes according to their own judgement.