Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023

‘Only 20 per cent of Hong Kong district council seats’ to be directly elected

‘Only 20 per cent of Hong Kong district council seats’ to be directly elected

Source says remaining seats on revamped district councils to be either appointed by government or selected by committees staffed by pro-establishment figures.

Only 20 per cent of the seats in Hong Kong’s revamped district councils will be directly elected by the public under a stricter-than-expected government proposal that aimed at “depoliticising” the municipal-level bodies, the Post has learned.

The proposed overhaul is expected to be scrutinised by the Executive Council, the city’s key decision-making body, on Tuesday and potentially announced on the same day.

A source on Monday said only one-fifth of all district council seats would be elected by residents under the proposal, with the rest to be either appointed by the government or selected by committees staffed by hundreds of pro-establishment figures.

The proportion of directly elected seats under the most recent iteration of the proposal would be less than the previously suggested 30 per cent.

The Post earlier learned that the number of constituencies could be slashed from 452 to 71, with a source saying the government planned to redraw boundaries to align them with those of the 71 area committees filled by government-appointed members.

Under the plan, each constituency could field two popularly elected representatives. Some analysts have said the move aimed to contain the opposition camp’s influence as it was unlikely political parties would win both seats in the same area.

Last Tuesday, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said future district councils would be comprised solely of “patriots” to prevent them from becoming hotbeds for pro-independence elements, arguing the municipal-level bodies should be “depoliticised” and administrative-led.

He said “a certain number of seats” would be chosen by public election, but had stopped short of revealing how many.

Only 20 per cent of the seats in Hong Kong’s revamped district councils will be directly elected by the public, a source has said.


Lee had also accused opposition camp district councillors elected by the last poll in 2019 of wrongdoings, such as going against the government, insulting officials and causing disruptions to councils’ conventions of meetings.

“It was blatantly unacceptable because they were behaving in such a way that advocated Hong Kong’s independence,” he added.

The opposition camp secured 392 of the 452 spots available on the city’s 18 district councils in 2019 under a “single-seat, single-vote”, or a small constituency, system. Only 27 seats were filled by appointment.

Tensions between district councils and officials intensified after the new representatives took office in 2020, with many incumbents from the opposition camp pledging to look beyond the bread-and-butter issues and champion causes dear to anti-government demonstrators.

Authorities later in the same year issued an internal circular requiring officials to walk out of the meetings if district councillors used offensive or insulting language at meetings or displayed slogans that violated the Beijing-imposed national security law.

Currently, two-thirds of those elected in the 2019 poll have either been disqualified or resigned over legal concerns in the past two years as the government required them to swear to uphold the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, and pledge allegiance under the national security law.

In 2021, government sources told several media outlets that disqualified district councillors could have been made to repay every dollar of their salaries and operating allowances received since taking office – as much as HK$2 million (US$257,500) per person.

The news prompted more than 210 councillors to resign, with many citing bankruptcy fears or investigations against them under the security legislation. Some also opted to leave the city.

Another 49 were ousted after the government deemed their oaths of allegiance to be “invalid”.

The next council elections are expected to be held later this year as the current term will wrap up in December.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
Close
0:00
0:00
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
The Sussexes' Royal Rebound: Could Harry and Meghan Markle Return to the UK?
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
WATCH THIS: democracy in Russia is so bad!
Ed Davey: It is possible for a woman to have a penis
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Steve Jobs introducing Apple's iPhone, exactly 16 years ago.
Banking Behemoth vs Ex-Boss: The PMorgan-Epstein Entanglement
China overtakes Japan as world's top car exporter
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
The official tapes of Trump's deposition in the E. Jean Carroll battery (rape) and defamation case have been released.
King Charles III being crowned.
Newly released video of Donald Trump’s rape trial deposition:
Video: Ukraine MP Punches Russian Representative At Global Meet
El Paso mayor has declared a state of emergency
Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones in an attempt to kill Putin
Dutch court orders man who fathered 550 kids to stop donating sperm
Kim Kardashian Lookalike Christina Ashten Dies Of Cardiac Arrest, Hours After Plastic Surgery
Samsung has banned employees from using generative AI services such as ChatGPT
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
Tucker Carlson is back, soon!
China Unveils Construction Road Map for Lunar Research Station
NetEase Launches Low-Code Platform to Help Businesses Develop Custom Apps
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
5 men dressed as women agree that ALL white people are racist.
President Biden announced his campaign to run for a 2nd term.
Justin Trudeau vs. Trudeau Justin
US Congresswoman threaten Twitter Files journalist with arrest
×