by Kwai To

Rumor has it that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) will disqualify a large number of pro-democracy district councilors this Saturday. All this is within expectations, according to a source from the pro-democracy camp. “It is just a matter of when they (Beijing) will take actions,” the source noted. Someone from the pro-establishment camp told the source that even after disqualifying pro-democracy district councilors, Beijing will not slow down the pace of cracking down on democrats. “Beijing will keep working and may even change the Legislative Council (LegCo) election rules. The aim is to make sure the pro-democracy camp will win less than half of the seats at LegCo and District Councils.” However, the source said nothing will change the position of supporters of the pro-democracy camp. “The pro-democracy camp has 60 percent of votes. This fact is not going to change.”

The source heard from some officials who are on speaking terms with him that Beijing is going to disqualify district councilors from the pro-democracy camp. “They said one-third of pro-democracy District councilors will be disqualified. That is more than 100 of them.” Many localists and young district councilors remain calm though. “They have been expecting this day to come since the day Beijing disqualified democrats at LegCo. It is just a matter of when.” A young localist councilor is of the view that Beijing had better replace them with former councilors from the pro-establishment camp who lost in the last District Council elections, just to prove China wrong. “The councilor said the Foreign Ministry of China often claims that since the handover, Hong Kong people have been enjoying an unprecedented level of democracy. But can they still make such a claim if district councilors are appointed and not elected? This is something not even the British colonial government dared to do.”

A political source quoted someone in the pro-establishment camp as saying that even if a large number of pro-democracy district councilors are ousted and removed from the Election Committee for electing the chief executive, and if the super district councilor seats are abolished, it does not mean the electoral reform is over. The pro-establishment person noted that many people are submitting reform proposals to Beijing. “Someone has proposed to change the LegCo election rules so that even if the pro-democracy camp has a lot of votes, they cannot get more than half of the directly elected seats.” However, the pro-establishment source admitted that “no matter how the rules are changed, the position of pro-democracy voters cannot be altered and the differences cannot be resolved”.

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