Former Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying has said there is no need to deny that a new committee being planned by the government to assess election hopefuls is a form of political vetting.

Whether or not someone was patriotic was also a political question, he said in a reference to Beijing’s intention for Hong Kong to be governed only by patriots.

Candidate vetting would be appropriate whether it was carried out by the central or Hong Kong authorities, since the city’s electoral reform was being led by the central government but would also be reflected in local Hong Kong laws, Leung told pro-establishment media Speak Out HK.

He denied that the central government was interfering in a local matter, noting its authority to appoint Hong Kong’s chief executive.

“The central government definitely has a right to say that a certain person is not suitable to be chief executive and not suitable to be a member of the Legislative Council,” he said in the interview.

On the new qualification review committee, Leung did not answer as to whether election aspirants disqualified by it should be allowed to appeal, saying that some appeals could be argued “from now until daybreak.” He added that in the past, Hong Kong had seen too many people playing procedural games, such as by filibustering in the legislature.

Leung predicted that members of the pro-democracy camp would still run for election after the reforms, given many district councilors had indicated their willingness to take an oath of allegiance in order to continue serving. He said he did not believe that the future legislature would be composed of only one type of pro-establishment members.

The former Hong Kong chief also questioned the necessity of continuing to elect lawmakers in geographical constituencies by popular vote, saying that in the past two LegCo terms, voters and candidates had given no consideration to district issues, which went against the purpose of direct elections.

Geographical constituencies, which now account for half the seats in the legislature, are expected to have reduced influence after the electoral reforms as some of the seats are replaced by appointees from an election committee.

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