Hong Kong cuts directly elected District Council seats as overhaul unanimously approved

Hong Kong’s “patriots-only” legislature has unanimously passed the government’s proposal to overhaul District Council elections.

The decision to pass the bill on Thursday, which reduced the number of democratically elected seats and re-introduced government-appointed members to local-level advisory bodies, was praised by top government officials including the chief executive and chief secretary for administration.

count district council election box november 11 (16) — The District Council elections in 2019. File Photo: May James/HKFP.

Lawmakers banged on their tables in the Legislative Council (LegCo) Chamber in celebration as President Andrew Leung announced the result of the vote.

Plans to overhaul the District Council elections were unveiled in May to ensure only “patriots” were elected to the local bodies, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019. The number of seats chosen democratically by the public will be slashed to around 20 per cent, with the rest chosen by the city’s leader, government-appointed committees and officials.

Constituency boundaries will be redrawn and each local council will be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates will undergo national security vetting to ensure their patriotism.

The District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2023 was passed in the Legislative Council (LegCo) with no opposing votes or abstentions.

The District Council overhaul came over a year after Beijing passed legislation to ensure “patriots” govern Hong Kong. LegCo also saw reduced democratic representation in the legislature, tightened control of elections and introduced a pro-Beijing vetting panel to select candidates.

2019 election a ‘coup’

The pro-democracy camp won by a landslide in the District Council election in 2019, gaining a majority in 17 our of 18 councils.

Pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, who was unseated in the Tuen Mun District Council by a Democratic Party candidate in the last election, called the 2019 race a “coup.”

The voting result on the third reading of District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2023 on July 6, 2023. Photo: Legislative Council, via video screenshot.

“Thinking back to 2019, there was a coup… the government then did not have the foresight, and allowed the District Council election to go ahead under such upheaval,” Ho said during the second reading of the bill on Thursday.

‘Wake-up call’

Chief Executive John Lee, in a statement published on Thursday, said he was “encouraged by the unanimous passage of the Bill by the LegCo.”

The chief executive said many district councillors had “acted against the functions” of the councils, and that they “disrupted the conduct of meetings and unscrupulously took actions that were not in line with the functions of [District Councils] as district advisory organisations.”

“The chaos is a wake-up call for us. We must plug the institutional loopholes and completely exclude those anti-China and destabilising forces from the [District Councils],” Lee said in the statement.

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