Radicals and unionists to make life tricky for government
The administration could face a tougher battle in lobbying newly elected lawmakers to support government policies as the legislature becomes more fragmented with the strengthening of radical groups and the increased number of unionists.
Parties from the pan-democratic and Beijing loyalist camps won a total of 38 seats in Sunday's election, compared with 45 before the polls. The drop stemmed from the weakening of the Liberal Party, the Democratic Party and The Alliance.
The Liberal Party won seven seats this year, compared with 10 before. The Alliance saw its seats fall from five to three, while the number of seats the Democratic Party won also dropped, from nine to eight.
The League of Social Democrats, known for its radical stance on political and livelihood issues, won three seats, up from two last time.
The new legislature will also have more lawmakers with a unionist background. The number of seats won by the Federation of Trade Unions rose from three to four, while Peter Cheung Kwok-che (social welfare constituency) and Leung Ka-lau (medical) are leaders of key unions.
A government source agreed there were more lawmakers with radical views and it would be tougher to lobby a more fragmented Legco.
'We will also have to spend more time ascertaining the stances of the 20 new faces,' the source said. 'But on the other hand, the injection of new faces may bring more room to manoeuvre as they may not have entrenched positions on policy issues.'
Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political scientist at Chinese University, said the proportional representation system, under which candidates in the top slots on a list stand a higher chance of being elected while like-minded candidates are more inclined to run on separate tickets, was not conducive to the emergence of a strong party in the legislature.
'The election of more non-affiliated candidates and those from small groups would herald more difficulties for government officials to lobby support from lawmakers,' he said.
Political scientist Ma Ngok, also of Chinese University, expected the return of more grass-roots legislators to result in stronger appeals on welfare and livelihood issues.
