Dismantling the Bureau | Beijing's "vote warehouse" electoral committee's power expansion leads the Legislative Council to slash directly elected seats

Political situation

Written by: Peng Zhuowei

2021-03-05 13:07

Last update date: 2021-03-05 13:12

The National People's Congress kicked off today (5th). This meeting will review the "Decision" on improving Hong Kong's electoral system.

When introducing the draft, Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, said that to improve Hong Kong’s electoral system, the main idea is to restructure and increase the empowerment of the Election Committee as the core, restructure the Election Committee, and optimize the size and formation of the Election Committee. In addition to continuing to elect the Chief Executive, the Election Committee is also given the new function of electing a larger proportion of Legislative Council members, directly participating in and nominating all candidates for the Legislative Council, and expanding Hong Kong society’s orderly political participation and participation through the Election Committee. Broader representation.

According to Wang Chen, in other words, the Election Committee will become the core of Hong Kong’s electoral system in the future. In addition to continuing to be responsible for electing the Chief Executive, the Election Committee also holds the power to control who can "enter" and participate in the Legislative Council. The restoration of an important part of the Legislative Council seats in the "Election Committee" that existed in the early days of the reunification will have a better chance of becoming the "largest power" in the Legislative Council, allowing Beijing to fully control the two major elections in Hong Kong in the future.

Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said that to improve the local election system, the main idea is to restructure and increase the empowerment of the election committee as the core, restructure the election committee, and optimize the size and formation of the election committee.

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Director Xia Baolong of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office met with members of the CPPCC National Committee in Hong Kong last night (5th). After the meeting, it was reported that the central government intends to increase the number of the Chief Executive Election Committee from the current 1,200 to 1,500, and one new member will include members of the CPPCC In the New Territories, the five sectors account for 300 people each. It is expected that more than a hundred CPPCC members will automatically become election committee members in the future to ensure that "patriots" will occupy the majority of the election committee.

The news also stated that Beijing plans to increase the number of seats in the Legislative Council from the current 70 seats to 90 seats, and the 5 seats in the district council (second) sector, commonly known as "super district councils," will be cancelled.

It is understood that the additional seats in the Legislative Council will be elected from among the 1,500 members of the Election Committee (the number of new seats after the change is rumored).

Since the election committee is dominated by the establishment, all new seats in the Legislative Council will fall into the hands of the establishment.

Regional direct elections may reduce the number of seats in the "Election Committee" or become the "biggest power"

Sources pointed out that after the addition of seats in the Legislative Council, the seats of the three groups of direct elections, functional constituencies, and election committees will not be evenly distributed between 30, 30, and 30. Regional direct elections are likely to be greatly reduced and allocated. Election committee category.

According to Wang Chen this morning, the Election Committee will be given a larger proportion of the members of the Legislative Council. In other words, after the "election committee" seats are "resurrected", they will not only become the third largest power in the Legislative Council, but may also become the "largest power." .

Fan Xu Litai, a former member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and former chairman of the Legislative Council, previously publicly proposed that the direct election of the Legislative Council should be divided into about ten electoral districts from the current five major electoral districts, with the highest number of votes in each district.

The political circle generally believes that Fan Tai is "exerting the wind" on behalf of Beijing. In the future, the Legislative Council may have only about 20 seats in direct elections, which is a reduction of nearly 40% of the seats compared to the current 35 seats.

Looking through the information, in the 1998 first Legislative Council election, the Election Committee elected 10 members of the Legislative Council; in 2000, the 800-member Election Committee elected 6 members of the Legislative Council; since 2004, the Election Committee no longer elected Congressman.

News: Beijing plans to increase the Legislative Council to 90 seats, the electoral committee will increase to 1,500 people and add a new sector

News: Legislative Council reorganizes direct elections and changes the method of election committee seats "resurrected" into the third force

Two Sessions | Wang Chen: Improving the election system for the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council involves amending Annexes 1 and 2 of the Basic Law

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