Hong Kong’s political elite yesterday began selecting a powerful committee to choose the territory’s next leader and nearly half the legislature under a new “patriots only” system imposed by Beijing.
The territory has never been a democracy — the source of years of protests — but a small and vocal opposition was tolerated after its 1997 handover from the UK.
Huge democracy rallies exploded two years ago and Beijing responded with a crackdown and a new political system where only those deemed loyal are allowed to stand for office.
Photo: AFP
The first poll under that new system — carrying the slogan “Patriots rule Hong Kong” — took place yesterday as members of the territory’s ruling classes cast votes for a 1,500-seat Election Committee.
In December, that committee is to appoint 40 of the territory’s 90 legislators — 30 others are to be chosen by special interest groups and just 20 are to be directly elected. Next year, it is set to pick Hong Kong’s next Beijing-approved leader.
Beijing says the new political system is more representative and would ensure “anti-China” elements are not allowed into office.
Critics say it leaves no room for the pro-democracy opposition, turning Hong Kong into a mirror of the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party-ruled mainland.
“Hong Kongers are completely cut off from electoral operations,” said Nathan Law (羅冠聰), a prominent democracy leader who fled to the UK last year. “All election runners will become puppet showmen under Beijing’s entire control ... with no meaningful competition.”
Ted Hui (許智?), a former Hong Kong lawmaker and democracy advocate who moved to Australia, said Hong Kong’s political system is now “a rubber-stamp game completely controlled by Beijing.”
“It’s more than a managed democracy. It’s an autocracy trying to pretend to be civilized,” Hui said.
In 2016, about 233,000 Hong Kongers were allowed to select the Election Committee.
That figure has now been trimmed to about 4,800 — 0.06 percent of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million population.
Police said 6,000 officers were on standby to ensure that there were no protests or disruptions.
When polls closed on Sunday evening, authorities said the turnout among the select group of electors was 86 percent.
“This is an important election, although the number of people eligible to join is not large,” Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) told reporters, adding that the new system would ensure “anti-China troublemakers” would no longer be able to “obstruct” the government.
In the wake of the 2019 protests, civil society groups have also been prosecuted and dozens have disbanded.
The Confederation of Trade Unions — the territory’s largest pro-democracy labor organization with about 140,000 members — yesterday became the latest, announcing that it would dissolve next month.
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