The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Legislative Council Election 2021 | The ratio of new members to old members changes from 4 to 6

2021-11-25T08:46:43.748Z


The first Legislative Council election after the electoral reform will be held on December 19, and the focus will be on a large number of newcomers. There were originally 154 people contesting for 90 seats. After review by the Candidate Qualification Review Committee, there were 153 valid nominations.


The first Legislative Council election after the electoral reform will be held on December 19, and the focus will be on a large number of newcomers.

Originally, 154 people contested for 90 seats. After being reviewed by the Candidate Qualification Review Committee, 153 people were nominated as valid candidates and formally became candidates.

According to statistics from "Hong Kong 01", 115 of them have never served as members of the Legislative Council, that is, only 38 candidates with parliamentary experience seek re-election or re-election. However, even if all these old people are elected, the proportion of newcomers to the Legislative Council will still account for at least 58%.

Looking at the results of the 2016 Legislative Council elections, there were only 29 newcomers out of the 70 seats at that time, which accounted for only 42%.

The so-called "new personnel and new style of work", the performance of these new parliamentary stars will certainly need time to verify, but under the pressure of Beijing desperately waiting for Hong Kong to promote good governance and good governance, they should bring about three major changes.


Among the 153 candidates, 115 have never served as members of the Legislative Council, that is, only 38 candidates with parliamentary experience seek re-election or re-election. However, even if all of these old candidates are elected, the proportion of new members to the Legislative Council will still account for at least 58%.

(Hong Kong 01 drawing)

Political spectrum: the emergence of non-traditional and new systems

The nomination period for the Legislative Council ended earlier (November 12), and there were 153 candidates after the Candidate Qualification Review Committee ruled.

Among them, 35 people competed for 20 seats in regional direct elections, 67 people competed for 30 seats in functional constituencies, and 51 people competed for 40 seats in electoral committees.

It is undeniable that since the facts of the Minato District National Security Act, the establishment of the principle of "patriots ruling Hong Kong", and the revision of the electoral system, the threshold for elections has been greatly increased, and the willingness of non-establishment parties to participate in elections has been greatly reduced, causing many citizens to worry about the parliament. The quality will drop sharply.

This kind of worry stems from two impressions. One is that it is generally believed that the level of traditional institutional governance and discussion is uneven. The other is that most people believe that pan-democrats dare to be right and wrong. On the contrary, it is a disguised form of lowering the quality of political discussions, but the reality that cannot be ignored is that the performance of the traditional establishment has indeed failed to gain the support and trust of the mainstream, and the citizens have long been eager to change.

In all fairness, no matter how pessimistic the public is, this election is indeed expected to promote a new generation to replace the old.

From the perspective of the political spectrum, a large number of non-traditional establishments or newly established establishments have fallen out of the arena.

Excluding 28 candidates who did not provide political background information, and 13 candidates who emphasized that they are non-organized, only 51 of the remaining 112 established candidates are from the traditional five major established political parties (the DAB, the Federation of Trade Unions) Confederation, Economic and Democratic Alliance, New Democratic Party, Liberal Party), that is, 61 people come from the non-traditional establishment or the new establishment camp.

On the one hand, due to the monopoly of political resources in the past, people from non-traditional or newly established systems have indeed less experience in participating in and discussing politics, and still have time to verify their ability to govern Hong Kong; but on the other hand, they are not as closely related to the structure of vested interests as in the traditional system. , I believe that its political ideas, value support, and discussion style, etc., will be different.

Excluding 28 candidates who did not provide political background information, and 13 candidates who emphasized that they were non-organized, 61 of the remaining 112 established candidates were from the non-traditional or newly established camp.

(Hong Kong 01 drawing)

The old and new ratio: increased from "4-6" to "June 4th"

As for the ratio of old to new, according to the statistics of "Hong Kong 01", among the 153 candidates this time, as many as 115 "newcomers" who have not served as members of the Legislative Council before, that is, only 38 candidates with parliamentary experience seek re-election or re-appointment. , But even if all these old people are elected, the newcomers to the Legislative Council will account for at least 58%.

It is worth mentioning that, looking at the results of the 2016 Legislative Council election, which was once hailed as the "generational change", there were only 29 newcomers out of the 70 seats at that time, which accounted for only 42%.

In short, in the new Legislative Council, the proportion of old and new members of the Legislative Council will be greatly increased from the “four-six ratio” five years ago to the “six-four ratio”.

The so-called new personnel and new styles, regardless of their background in political spectrum, are indeed expected to bring more "innovation" relative to the "old people."

From the perspective of professional background, these 115 candidates can also be described as breaking the previous pattern of political and business dominance.

According to statistics provided by the "Hong Kong 01" reporter based on the information provided by the candidates, more than 35% of them are business elites and more than 15% are from the political sector, and more than 40% of the candidates (48 people) are from different professional sectors. Eight people come from academia, and some are even highly respected authorities in individual fields.

More importantly, these 48 professionals do not only participate in the traditional functional constituency or regional direct elections, but as many as 16 people have participated in the election committee field-most of them clearly stated that the "election committee field" represents the whole of Hong Kong. Interests, rather than serving individual sectors, and avoid swaying around to please public opinion, and can discuss politics and legislatively more objectively.

In addition, among 42 business representatives, there is no shortage of corporate executives.

Among them, 13 reported as directors, 9 were in business, 6 presidents, 5 general managers, 3 corporate consultants, 2 chief strategy officers, and 1 vice president.

Excluding the wealthy children of individual wealthy families, it is believed that these candidates can hold important positions in the company.

Of course, "corporate management" has always been different from "SAR governance." It would be inappropriate to move business logic to political venues. It can be seen that these elites have also been tested.

According to statistics from the "Hong Kong 01" reporter based on the information provided by the candidates, more than 35% are business elites, more than 15% are from the political sector, and more than 40% of the candidates (48 people) are from different professional sectors.

(Hong Kong 01 drawing)

System limitations: old people are better than new people?

Based on the above analysis, it can be said that the new Legislative Council is expected to bring a new atmosphere to the political landscape.

However, some commentators worry that these newcomers are less well-known and may not have brilliant results in the past. Some have not even announced their specific election platforms. It is really hard to convince them that they are capable of surpassing the old ones.

However, those well-known old people did not have any impressive political achievements in the past, and some were even "stigmatized" and recognized as "loyalty waste." How can people not expect a generation of newcomers to beat the old?

Of course, "new people" do not mean "big exposure." Maybe it is because they are newer and less experienced, they must be more cautious, always use the lessons of the old people to guard themselves, and strive to improve the unfair distribution of resources and the injustice of industrial development. Prosperity will live up to Shaohua’s promotion of capitalist progress and reforms of good governance and good governance, otherwise sooner or later it will become an old man and be replaced.

In addition, some commentators questioned that the revision of the electoral system has strengthened the "executive leadership" to a certain extent, but it has also weakened the role of the legislature in a disguised form. Therefore, even if the new parliament can realize "the able to live", I believe it will be the same. "Returning to heaven is weak."

Indeed, although the Basic Law empowers legislators to enact laws, approve public expenditures, and monitor government operations, all policy drafts involving public expenditures, political systems, or government operations can only be proposed by the government or must be obtained first. Written consent of the Chief Executive——Looking at the just-concluded 6th Legislative Council, the Chief Executive only approved private bills for deliberation in the Legislative Council five times, including the former Chief Executive Liang Zhenying’s approval of the financial sector Chen Zhenying to propose the Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. (Merger) Ordinance The current Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor approved the "St. John's College (Amendment) Bill 2019" proposed by Pakatan Rakyat Wu Yongjia, former accounting member Leung Jichang proposed the "Professional Accountant (Amendment) Bill 2018", and the travel industry Yao Sirong proposed " The Seamen’s Club Incorporation (Amendment) Bill 2018 and the Waterworks (Waterworks Regulations) (Amendment) Bill 2021 issued by the Federation of Trade Unions Mak Meijuan in 2017.

Moreover, under the new system, government drafts can only be passed with the support of more than half of the council members, but motions, bills, and amendments proposed by members must go through "election committees to select groups" and "functional and directly elected groups." The "group counting" of ", and each has more than half of the support can be passed.

All this shows that the functions of parliamentarians do face many restrictions.

Some of the well-known former establishments did not have any impressive political achievements in the past, and some were even "sorrowful" and recognized as "loyal waste."

(Photo by Luo Junhao)

The situation has changed dramatically: the newcomer is expected to beat the old one!

However, Hong Kong’s political situation has long undergone earth-shaking changes, and it is really difficult for us to use the governance model derived from the old system as a single analytical framework to assert that the political structure under the new system will not produce positive results.

In fact, as the director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office Xia Baolong set the tone for "patriots ruling Hong Kong," the central government has made clear requirements for all those who govern Hong Kong. They must be good at fully implementing "One Country, Two Systems", be good at solving various deep-seated contradictions, and be good at doing practical things for the people. , Good at uniting all aspects, good at performing allegiance and fulfilling duties; therefore, it is foreseeable that whether it is the SAR government or legislators, there should be three major changes-

First of all, their political responsibilities, governance awareness and value beliefs will change, because they are in politics to make Hong Kong people live a better life, to make "one country, two systems" go further, and to add luster to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, but never In order to satisfy self-vanity, seek personal interests, and monopolize political resources;

Secondly, their understanding of the Hong Kong issue will change. They can't just talk about the "deep-level contradictions" but can't say why, nor can they think that having the "Hong Kong National Security Act" to suppress reactionary forces is the same as everything is fine. Only by continuously strengthening theoretical equipment, enriching the knowledge structure, and aligning national concepts, can we "liberate our minds and seek truth from facts" to make correct decisions in different situations, provide effective support, provide policy explanations, and effectively guide public opinion, without swaying with public opinion. Or fight blindly;

Finally, their thinking and methods of solving the Hong Kong problem will change. They will not dare to touch the cheese of vested interests, nor will they deliberately rely on "harmony and mud" to get through the barriers, but must uphold "development is the last word" and " The value belief of "fairness and justice" not only enlarges the cake, but also divides the cake well, bid farewell to the disparity between the rich and the poor, and move towards common prosperity!

For the list of candidates from all sectors in the 7th Legislative Council Election,

please click here to refer to the "Hong Kong 01" election website.

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-11-25

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-14T15:15:59.935Z
News/Politics 2024-02-12T04:26:17.914Z
News/Politics 2024-02-12T02:53:34.825Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.