Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election has been delayed again and will be held on Dec. 19, as the government pushes through legislative amendments that will dramatically change the landscape of the city’s electoral system.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the new date on Tuesday as details of the amendments were revealed publicly, which, among other changes, would increase the number of geographical constituencies in Hong Kong from five to 10.

The new boundaries were published on Tuesday, with each constituency set to elect two lawmakers for a total of 20.

The members of the Election Committee — that Beijing has increased from 1,200 to 1,500 — will select 40 out of 90 lawmakers, and are set to be chosen by eligible voters from various professional subsectors and patriotic groups on Sept. 19.

Functional constituencies, which comprise a mixture of individual and corporate voters, will also see changes, with nine of those constituencies set to abolish the use of individual voters.

Among the new functional constituencies will be one composed of Hong Kong members of the National People’s Congress, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and other representatives from national organizations.

The candidate eligibility review committee, which will screen election hopefuls for patriotism, will be composed of a chairperson and between two and four other members appointed by the chief executive. These members will be senior government officials, Lam said, but other “members of society” would also be appointed.

Lam added that, since these other members would be able to access national security information in the course of their work, it could not be ruled out that they would need the approval of the central government in Beijing before they could take up their positions.

Government officials will also use electronic records for the first time to verify voters’ identities at polling stations this year instead of paper ones. In announcing the change, Lam said that some people believed that the traditional paper method was “not very reliable.”

Lam’s announcements came after her earlier comments on Tuesday, where she said that while Hongkongers had the right to cast blank ballots, anyone who incited others to do so could risk breaking the law.

Click here for Chinese version

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play