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Hong Kong elections to face overhaul in favor of stronger Beijing control

蘋果日報 2021/03/05 06:00


Chinese lawmakers are set to discuss a Beijing-backed bill that will likely bring drastic changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system and deter opposition figures from gaining a foothold in the establishment.
According to details released late Thursday, the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, is to deliberate a bill on “improving” Hong Kong’s electoral system when meetings open on Friday.
Changes to be brought into Hong Kong’s political system were meant to help the city “keep abreast of the times,” NPC spokesperson Zhang Yesui said in a press conference on Thursday. He said such changes would ensure that the city was governed by patriots.
Separately, Hong Kong media quoted unnamed sources as saying that the city’s next Legislative Council would see an increase of seats from 70 to 90, with the new positions to be elected by a Beijing-based committee. A “vetting committee” would also be set up to determine whether a candidate could qualify for the legislative election.
This would effectively block pro-democracy leaders from forming a meaningful bloc to exert any real influence, analysts have suggested. Reports also indicated that the next Legislative Council election, already postponed from last September, might be delayed for another year for such reforms to be implemented on the local level. Hong Kong authorities earlier delayed the 2020 polls on COVID-19 concerns.
Under the rumored reform plans, the electoral committee designated to vote for the city’s leader will also have 1,500 members, up from 1,200. These new seats will likely be filled by Beijing loyalists as, according to reports, China is looking to remove more than 100 committee positions currently taken up by directly elected district councilors.
Beijing is empowered to handle only Hong Kong matters relating to military and foreign affairs under the “one country, two systems” guiding principle, as stipulated in the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that was crafted prior to Hong Kong’s handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
There are growing fears that Beijing will not live up to the expectations embodied by such internationally recognized agreements.
A spokesperson for the Hong Kong government said late Thursday that it would “fully cooperate” with any resolution passed at the NPC meetings regarding electoral reform. He said that since the local electoral system was related to national sovereignty, Beijing should have a say in it.
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