My Take | Will there be a Hong Kong Legislative Council election this year?
- Given how bad the relationship has become between China and the West, Beijing can take its own sweet time to resume elections in Hong Kong without worrying about international criticism
In a widely seen online video clip, former Hong Kong Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing poses this question that’s no doubt on the minds of many people. The short answer is, he doesn’t think so. He is probably right.
When Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor called off the election scheduled for September last year, the ostensible reason was because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The real reason, I think we can now safely state, was the impending overhaul of the election system in Hong Kong.
But while many people had guessed it at the time, few could have anticipated the sweeping changes announced earlier this month at the “two sessions”, or Lianghui.
The changes, likely to be finalised and promulgated by the National People’s Congress next month, will require not only amending Annexes 1 and 2 of the Basic Law, but also the Hong Kong government to harmonise up to 20 statutes and amendments in local law, according to an official estimate. The two annexes specify the rules for the elections of the chief executive and of legislators.
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Two sessions: China’s parliament plans an overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system
As announced, there will be a significant redistribution and expansion of functional constituency (FC) seats in the Election Committee for the chief executive and in Legco. Geographic election boundaries may need to be redrawn. FC corporate voters and regular voters may need to re-register. All this takes time.
