About 20 pc of seats to be elected directly after District Council review: sources
The proportion of the direct election seats in the District Councils is set to be slashed to 20 percent as the government about to complete the review on district administration, according to sources.
The rest of the District Councils members would be selected through appointment and indirect election with a candidate eligibility review mechanism.
This came after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said last week that the district bodies would be formulated in "multiple ways" with "certain election elements" and the number of seats kept at about 470.
He added that the district administration is worth retaining though with a limited number of directly elected members to ensure patriots take office.
It is understood that the Executive Council will have their review of the proposal tomorrow (May 2) and that the reform could be revealed as early as the same day.
There were a total of 479 District Council members, including both elected and ex-officio members, with the majority being directly elected at the last election in 2019. Pro-democracy district councillors swept into the office by a landslide in the election, gaining 392 of 452 seats in the 18 district councils.
However, up to two-thirds of the councilors have since left their posts after being arrested or disqualified as authorities mandated the swearing of an oath of allegiance to the Hong Kong administration, while some have resigned for "multiple reasons."