The time for casting votes for the Chief Executive election, scheduled for March 25 at the AsiaWorld Expo, may be extended for the convenience of voters.

As the incumbent Chief Executive, Donald Tsang may contest the poll, the government will not, therefore, run any election forums to save queries that such forums are unfair to other candidates.

At the meeting of Legislative Council Panel on Constitutional Affairs yesterday, lawmakers from across the board expressed dissatisfaction about the unavailability of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) and said the AsiaWorld Expo was too far away from city centre.

Howard Young from Liberal Party said even though the polling would begin at 9 am and continue till 10 am, many people have not been there before. He also feared if the Airport Express service was disrupted for any technical glitch, voters would be delayed and could miss their chance to vote.

Some legislators questioned why the HKCEC could not be booked for such an important event, given the polling day was fixed more than a year ago.

Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam said that the government had begun looking for the venue in mid-2005 after the conclusion of the Chief Executive by-election. But since many permanent, international clients had already booked the HKCEC for exhibition purpose, it is not available on March 25.

"Transportation connection to the airport is quite convenient as we can get there within half an hour by the Airport Express train," he said.

However, considering the voters' worries that they might be late, he said that the Electoral Affairs Commission would consider extending the voting time by half an hour to one hour.

On executive-legislative relations, Lam admitted that it took the government a great deal of effort and time to lobby for support since there is no "government party".

"But a CE returned by universal suffrage cannot guarantee that the CE will have the support of political parties either, just like the case in the United States," he said.

Although the Basic Law does not forbid a CE from being a political party member, Lam said opinion polls show that people would like to see an independent CE who can balance the interests of political parties.

The CE will make use of the room in the Basic Law to broaden the political scene by appointing lawmakers to sit on the Executive Council and extending appointment of principal officials and deputies of the policy bureau secretaries to members of political parties, he added.