Not happy with Legco voting arrangement
There is one aspect of this month's elections for the Legislative Council which does not seem to have been discussed by local political commentators. This concerns the fact that, in the geographical constituencies, voters in many instances will not be aware which candidate will receive their vote.
Although the functional constituencies are mostly a load of nonsense, the voter does at least know which candidate he/she is voting for.
The major parties have several candidates in each geographical constituency and I know they are listed in order of party preference.
However, such order of preference might not be acceptable to some voters as, let's face it, all the major parties are submitting some candidates who should never be in the Legislative Council.
As a voter I might be happy that my vote helps elect the party's first preference, but certainly do not want my vote to help the second or maybe the third party preference. Obviously, if the party's first preference is unacceptable to the voter, then he/she should not vote for that party even if the second or third preference is acceptable.
In most countries in the world, political parties submit one candidate in each constituency.
The voter then has the option of not voting for a party's candidate, if he does not consider the candidate to be of the required calibre.
Most major parties have submitted some candidates who think they are experts on all matters to do with governing the SAR, but in reality are extremely ignorant of such things.
Fortunately, many of these are the most vocal which does help the voter know who should not receive his vote.
But the present arrangement does not preclude, if the voter is voting for a major party, such a vote helping to elect a candidate the voter does not wish to see in the Legislative Council.
I will certainly be looking very carefully at the major parties' order of preference, but at this stage I am strongly leaning towards an independent candidate or a one-candidate party platform.
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