Political situation
Written by: Wen Weiguang
2021-03-24 07:00
Last update date: 2021-03-24 07:00
The National People’s Congress passed the "Decision" to amend Hong Kong’s electoral system in the "Two Sessions" earlier. It will drastically modify the election methods of the Election Committee and the Legislative Council, and will add a "Candidate Qualification Review Committee" as the main gate. However, the composition and operation of the committee have been Keep it secret.
A senior politician close to the central government said that the committee is expected to have no more than ten members, and may be composed of five to seven members at most. The chairperson will be set up. In the event of a large controversial case, the decision will be made by voting.
Since the 2016 Legislative Council general election, the Hong Kong Government has given the Returning Officer the role of "DQ" candidates.
According to the news, after the introduction of the qualification review committee, although the role of the Returning Officer is still retained, he is only responsible for submitting the suspected candidates to the review committee for decision and deciding the "life and death" of the relevant candidates.
In other words, after five years, the Returning Officer may no longer have to play the cruel role of "executioner" in the future.
The introduction of the ``confirmation letter'' system in 2016
has been controversial since DQ
In the 2016 Legislative Council General Election, the Hong Kong Government introduced a "confirmation letter" system, and the Returning Officer negotiated with the candidates to determine whether the candidates are eligible to stand for election.
Many "local factions" related to the Hong Kong independence forces were rejected by the DQ. This is the first time in the history of Hong Kong elections that Hong Kong independence persons have been explicitly rejected. Since then, the Returning Officer has been given a "sword-killing" task and has been repeatedly used by the democratic camp. In response, some of the returning officers who had acted on the DQ democrats were publicly "started", and some returning officers said that they had taken sick leave before deciding whether the democratic candidates were "life or death", and the authorities had to assign other returning officers to "knock the sword" on their behalf.
The Returning Officer is only a middle-level official and should not assume political responsibility
After the anti-revision law turmoil in 2019, Beijing made heavy recruitment to block non-"patriots" from participating in the establishment system. Following the National Security Law, this year it will revise the election system on a large scale and introduce the qualification review committee, which is justified as a political checkpoint.
Some senior politicians close to the Central Government estimate that the role of the Returning Officer will still exist in the future, but will only be responsible for the preliminary work, responsible for collecting the election forms and preliminary review of the qualifications of the candidates. If there is doubt about the qualifications of the candidates, they will be submitted for review. The committee decided, "The Returning Officers are only middle-level officials, and they should not have assumed this (DQ) political responsibility."
According to the decision of the National People's Congress, after the election system is revised, whether it is the election of the chief executive, the Legislative Council or the election committee, the qualification examination committee must check it.
The composition of the review committee should be singular so as to be determined by the "minority subordinate to the majority" method
Tan Yaozong, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, estimated earlier that there may be more than ten or twenty members of the qualification review committee. I believe that members must be familiar with the law and have high morals, and they must not plan to run for the election to avoid role conflicts. Those who do not plan to run for the election should be older. .
The source said that it is expected that the qualification review committee will not be held by a dozen or so people, as is said by the public. At the same time, the composition of the review committee should be singular so that it can be determined by "the minority obeys the majority."
Based on the above requirements, the source pointed out that the composition is estimated to be five to seven people.
The voting method of the Eligibility Committee is estimated to be similar to the simple voting system of the Legislative Council. Generally, the chairman will not participate in the decision-making process, and will only intervene when the votes of the pros and cons are equal, and cast the final vote.
Nie Dequan pointed out that those who have aspirations to join the government will face attacks. Reforming the electoral system can improve governance efficiency
Electoral restructuring︱Fan Xu Litai: Refers to the improvement of the electoral system is a retrogression in democracy. Those who do not understand democracy at all
Interview | Tan Huizhu: The National Security Agency can submit information to the review committee and appoint it to be handled by Hong Kong
Election restructuring | Liang Zhenying: The review committee is a political review by the central government or the Hong Kong government.
Electoral restructuring｜Tang Jiahua's reverberation: I am a politician and not suitable for a review committee
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