Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Number of eligible voters for Hong Kong Election Committee polls plunges

Number of eligible voters for Hong Kong Election Committee polls plunges

Provisional figures show number of registered electors has shrunk 97 per cent from 246,000 in 2016 race.

The education sector, followed by area, fight crime and fire safety committees, has emerged as the biggest group among about 7,900 voters eligible to cast ballots for seats on Hong Kong’s revamped Election Committee in September.

Provisional figures released by the electoral authorities on Sunday showed the number of registered voters has plunged 97 per cent from 246,000 in the last race in 2016.

The drop followed a drastic Beijing-led overhaul of the city’s electoral system in March to ensure only “patriots” would govern Hong Kong.

The Election Committee was originally only tasked with picking the city’s leader, but after the shake-up, it will now select 40 members of the legislature, to be expanded to 90 seats, and nominate the rest.

The city’s electoral system has been revamped.


Under the overhaul, the committee will grow from 1,200 members to 1,500, while individual electors will be curtailed in favour of a corporate voting system in its largely trade-based subsectors, including ones where the opposition camp used to prevail.

In the 2016 elections for the body, 230,000 of the more than 246,000 registered electors were individuals while 16,400 were corporate voters.

This time, there are 5,344 corporate voters but only 2,547 individual ones.

The committee is composed of 40 subsectors. It has 362 ex officio members, including 190 local deputies and delegates of China’s legislature and top advisory body, and 90 Legislative Council members.








Members of 36 subsectors, involving as many as 982 seats, are to be returned by elections. Another 156 seats will be filled by nomination among groups in their respective subsectors.

Voter numbers have plummeted in subsectors that were previously strongholds of the opposition camp, including social welfare, accountancy and education.

The education subsector, which emerged as the biggest voter group this time with 1,725 schools and institutions having registered, had more than 100,000 individual voters in the past.

The accountancy subsector has 39 corporate voters, compared with about 26,000 individuals previously. The social welfare subsector now has 80 corporate voters, down from more than 300 of these and about 13,800 individuals last time.

Political scientist Ivan Choy.


A new subsector – representatives of members of area, fight crime or fire safety committees – makes up the second biggest elector group, with 1,081 individual voters.

The subsector with the fewest electors is the “Employers’ Federation of Hong Kong”, with just 18 corporate voters.

Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political scientist at Chinese University, said the new system was designed to remove the opposition camp from the committee.

“The central government seems to pay more attention to making the election results more controllable rather than whether committee members can represent their respective trades. Under such a system, I would not be surprised by the [shrinkage of the voter numbers],” Choy said.

A provisional voter register is available for public inspection from Sunday to Thursday. A finalised register will be published on August 5, with those on it able to vote in the Election Committee polls on September 19.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×