Reforms to Hong Kong’s electoral laws are expected to take place in May, a senior Hong Kong politician said after China’s top legislature decided that the city’s election system needs to be “improved” to ensure patriots are in power.

The Hong Kong government is expected to amend local laws in May and can then proceed to voter registration work in order to facilitate the election committee’s formation, according to National People’s Congress Standing Committee member Tam Yiu-chung.

Speaking to Commercial Radio, Tam said that the NPCSC had not yet disclosed the date that it would meet to discuss the specific details behind Hong Kong’s electoral reforms, although it had already assessed the cost of pushing forward the reforms.

The new candidate qualification review committee would have several bases to assess candidates’ eligibility, Tam said, including whether their past conduct conformed with the Basic Law, the national security law and the NPCSC’s interpretation of the Basic Law’s oath-taking clause.

Tam emphasized that those who wish to enter the Legislative Council to “make trouble” or to overthrow or subvert the government will not be allowed to run for election.

Asked about the composition of the review committee, Tam said that he believed those on the committee would be fair and would do their jobs in an even-handed way.

In the 2019 District Council election, some of those elected were “unknowns” and “problematic,” Tam said, adding that this showed that the “one person, one vote” system did not necessarily lead to capable people being elected.

He emphasized that the new “small circle” election format would not result in incompetent people being elected, and the public should not be misled into thinking otherwise.

The National People’s Congress passed a decision last week which will increase the number of seats in the Legislative Council from 70 to 90, an unknown proportion of which will be selected by an election committee.

The NPC Standing Committee is expected to soon amend the annexes of the Basic Law related to election systems, which will then require local legislation to be amended in Hong Kong.

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