Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp is mulling over whether to sit out an upcoming election that has just undergone major reforms, but fears that its absence will lead to further shrinking of the space to oppose governance deficiencies.

Beijing earlier this month passed a resolution on “patriots governing Hong Kong,” which brought in drastic changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system that were set to eradicate any remaining opposition voices.

Under the reforms, aspiring candidates for the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s parliament, will have to be nominated by the heavily pro-Beijing Election Committee, whose sole task previously was to elect the chief executive, Hong Kong’s top job. Overall, the number of legislative seats will increase from 70 to 90, but that of publicly elected lawmakers will decrease from 35 to 20.

The Election Committee will grow by 300 seats to 1,500 people, with a new sector that will include members of national organizations.

All aspirants for lawmaker, election committee member or chief executive must be vetted by a separate screening committee, which will aid the removal of anyone critical of Beijing. Members of this screening committee are to be appointed by the chief executive, an arrangement which critics say will create a conflict of interest.

The Democratic Party, the biggest political party in the pan-democratic camp, has yet to decide whether to take part in the legislative election, postponed from September last year to December this year. Party chairperson Lo Kin-hei acknowledged that they were caught between a rock and a hard place, as contesting the polls could go against public sentiment about the reforms, while not contesting could mean more narrowing of the political space for opposition voices.

Lo said the party was dealing with different opinions internally and would need to consider what its decision would mean for democracy development in Hong Kong. He hoped to arrive at a decision by September.

The Civic Party was leaning toward not taking part in the polls, according to its chairperson Alan Leong in an opinion piece. Leong said that to run would be to build a fake illusion that the public actually had real choices in the election. According to sources, the party is looking to pivot from being a political party to becoming a pressure group.

Former Democratic Party chairperson and lawmaker Emily Lau said it was humiliating for pro-democracy politicians to seek nominations from the pro-establishment camp just to be in the running for a legislative seat. The electoral changes had denied pan-democratic lawmakers of all their dignity, and Lau suggested that her political allies should consider not competing.

Lau later wrote an opinion piece in Apple Daily that said: “If most members of the public disagree with [the electoral reforms], to insist on running would be suicide.”

Her party colleague, former lawmaker Fred Li, told pro-government media Kin Liu Magazine that the central Chinese government had expressed through multiple channels its hopes of seeing his party take part in the election. Li also said he had been lobbying Beijing to allow all politicians from parties outside of the pro-establishment camp to have the right to run.

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