HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government on Tuesday released the final details of an attempt to drastically revamp the city’s electoral system, including a proposal that would make it illegal to encourage voters to cast blank ballots or hold elections boycott.
The election changes are the latest attempt by the central Chinese government to eradicate political opposition in Hong Kong, after months of fierce anti-government demonstrations in 2019. Last month, the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, an arm of the Chinese legislature of the Communist Party, unanimously approved a plan that gives national security agencies the power to select candidates for political office.
The proposal, which followed the entry into force of a tough national security law, stipulated that less than a quarter of Hong Kong lawmakers would be directly elected, compared to half before. It also created a candidate inquiry committee that has the power to unilaterally ban any person deemed insufficiently loyal to the government. And it has built up the membership of another election committee that elects Hong Kong’s leading leader and stacked it with more Beijing loyalists.
However, some details of the new system, including exactly who would sit on the reconstituted election committee, were unclear until Tuesday when the Hong Kong government published a more than 500-page bill. The bill made it clear that the electoral committee – which has already been tilted in favor of the central government – will be filled with even more business and interest group leaders, as well as members of political bodies that have pro-Beijing.
A proposal has also been included that criminalizes the encouragement of voters to have empty or amended votes criminalized, or to have them voted for altogether. The boycott of elections is an idea that has been discussed in some people in the democracy camp.
The bill is expected to be easily accepted by the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s local legislature, which is made up entirely of pro-establishment figures following the resignation of the opposition last year.
“We all want the election to be very fair, and therefore any manipulation to endanger or sabotage an election should not be allowed,” Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive, told a news conference. said.
The bill also set dates for the upcoming election competitions. The 1,500 members of the election committee will be elected on September 19.
The legislative election was set for December 19th. They were originally planned in September last year, but the government postponed the vote, citing coronavirus problems, although opposition figures accused it of trying to prevent an election defeat.
The election for CEO is scheduled for March.
While the majority of the proposal focused on the composition of the electoral committee – which in addition to the election of the chief executive will also have the power to fill 40 legislative seats – it also included several changes in the few remaining directly elected seats. Some geographic districts for the seats will be redesigned, and the areas that had pro-democracy will be combined with the more steadfast pro-settlement.
Yet some experts have said the changes are unlikely to have a major impact on the political opposition. After all, the changes to the directly elected seats can only harm candidates for democracy if there is a position for an office in the first place – a scenario that seemed increasingly unlikely in the light of the new examination procedures, said Ma Ngok, associate professor of Government at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
“The most important issue is who will still participate in the pro-democracy camp and who may be allowed to go,” Professor Ma said. “If you have already built in a very strict screening system, I do not think it is necessary for the government to change the system.
In the weeks since Beijing approved the election plans, authorities have repeatedly said that Hong Kong residents have broadly accepted the changes.
Professor Ma said that the government seems to be acknowledging that the changes were indeed unpopular, at least among some population.
“It looks like the government thinks a lot of people will actually try to boycott or cast a protest vote,” he said.