[District Council Election] Cherish community construction and say no to political speculators

01 opinion

Written by: Commentary Editor

2019-11-22 10:04

On Sunday (24th), the district board reelection, the electorate will elect 452 members as representative representatives to handle regional affairs. Despite the impact of the anti-reforms, this election has attracted many political candidates to stand for election, social sentiment and politicization of elections. However, society cannot forget that the original intention of the district boards is to take community construction as their responsibility, and they should be alert to political speculators. It is not necessary to pay for four years, bet on political slogans and forget the importance of community work.

Unlike the previous elections, the current district councils are the most competitive in recent years, and 1,090 candidates will compete for 452 elected seats. This figure not only broke the total number of candidates who went there, but also no candidate for any constituency was automatically elected. "Zero competition" is already awkward. On the whole, the political participation in the society has improved, and the development of civil society has become more mature. However, due to the current tearing atmosphere, more than one hopes to gain greater voice from the district board system. People hold the "revenge mentality" to participate in the election, venting dissatisfaction with the current situation. However, the original intention of the District Council is to let voters express their views on the people's livelihood affairs of the local administrative districts and promote community autonomy. Therefore, the standard of election is not to find out the characters who scream political slogans, but to select community representatives who focus on improving people's livelihood.

In theory, since the District Council will produce six Legislative Council functional constituencies and 117 Chief Executive Election Committee members, their influence will not only be regional. However, as a foundation for the construction of democratic politics, the District Council should give priority to the issue of people's livelihood. Like the functions set out in the District Councils Bill, the District Boards should not only advise the Government on welfare matters, public facilities and services, public works in the districts, and organise community activities in the districts. It is also necessary to improve the environment and recreation. And cultural activities, community activities and other grants. Therefore, the District Council is not only a local organization with limited political and other issues, but also a political ladder for training and training political talents.

However, to measure what is meant by "a competent" District Council candidate, the political distinction between "Yellow and Blue" is hard to be a criterion. It should be noted that the ability to measure a member's ability is not only about how he views the current social controversy, but also the community governance scope of the candidate's familiarity with community affairs and the ability of residents to contact. In the 2003 district board elections, the democrats won an overwhelming victory under the rising social atmosphere. However, the subsequent results also reflected that the politicization of district elections only allowed a large number of voters to vent their dissatisfaction with the government, while ignoring the other The urgent need of the people's livelihood has finally led to the development of the District Council for four years. Therefore, when voters vote, they should focus on the platform initiative and community service experience as a measure.

In addition to regional work, voters can also pay attention to those who are interested in serving the community. Can they propose reforms to address the various problems of the current district board system to improve the functions of the district boards. After the abolition of the Urban Council and the Regional Council by the Hong Kong Government in 2000, the District Councils have always given people the advisory organization, rather than the incompetent perception of statutory bodies, and their existence value has been questioned. If the society is disrupted by an empty political slogan and supports the candidates who regard community work as a "chicken rib", they will miss the opportunity to propose reforms in the system and continue the nature of the current "regional seminars". On the contrary, candidates who intend to participate in community service should at least be able to point out the deficiencies of the district council in the financial power, regional service rights and advisory system to persuade voters to reform. This will improve the ideal function of the District Councils and enhance the bottom-up attention and harmony of the residents, thus establishing the recognition of the Parliament and Members.

The weight of each vote may be negligible, but the combination is the power to promote community change. The outcome of a small constituency can be determined by a few votes. In the past, many people laughed and said that the establishments only relied on the snakes to buy the hearts of the people. However, the district boards were the system for dealing with community governance, and the community work must involve the material needs of the people. Therefore, in the past, the establishments could dominate the reality of the district boards. It can also be seen as a fruit of solid work in the region. However, under the turbulent social sentiment, voters must recognize the political speculators who are elected by the people, so as not to waste a valuable vote.

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