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SCMP Reporter

Ask him about anything, from the change of boss at RTHK to triads in Macau, and Chinese University academic Lau Siu-kai will always offer sensible analysis.

 But, he finds it difficult to comment on the upcoming District Council elections. It is not because they are too complex, rather they haven't caught his attention.

 'I have not spent much time looking into it,' he concedes.

 His reaction is not uncommon. Despite high-sounding government calls for the community to choose their local representatives, the first District Council polls have yet to draw much interest.

 Moderate election coverage by the media reflects a dearth of public enthusiasm over participating in the launching of the new district bodies.

 Formed in 1982 as the first small step by British colonial authorities towards a representative government system, the district boards later became a less important component of the political setup after the Legislative Council too was opened to elections.

 The British, however, tactfully adopted some significant measures to keep political parties and other groups interested in past polls to help stimulate political participation.

 For instance, a 'single seat, single vote' system was adopted in the geographical constituency elections in the Legislative Council in 1995. Under the system, a geographical constituency is comprised of about 10 constituencies in district board elections.

 The effect is that a party candidate stands a stronger chance of winning a Legco seat if his party colleagues have done well in the district polls.

 But the correlation of district and Legco geographical constituencies was destroyed when the Government decided to replace the 'single seat, single vote' system by proportional representation in five large districts.

 Each of those districts contain hundreds of thousands of voters. Now, results in district elections have no strong bearing on Legco's geographical polls.

 Take some small constituencies like the Peak or Tai Koo Shing. Under proportional representation, results there have become less influential in a huge geographical constituency such as Hong Kong Island.

 Major political parties have nonetheless mobilised sizeable teams to bid for the 390 seats on offer at the polls on November 28, not for strategic advantage, but because the elections provide an opportunity for first-time hopefuls to gain experience and for the whole party to promote its image. Their actual share of district council seats will be of marginal importance. Legco remains the major battlefield.

 No party, however, can afford to be seen as being disinterested. This is in particularly important in the case of the two major political parties - the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB). Fielding a total of 172 (Democrats) and 176 (DAB) respectively, they are in direct competition in most constituencies.

 Poll results in the Democrats versus DAB constituencies will provide important references on the relative popularity of the two.

 The district polls also provide a perfect opportunity for the Liberal Party leaders, who normally fight shy of direct elections, to test the water in smaller constituencies in preparation for the second Legco polls. If worst comes to worst, the impact of a surprise defeat in the district polls will be less damaging than in a Legco election.

 That, however, is not the case when it comes to the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood. These polls are a matter of life-and-death. It is vital for them to gain a noticeable presence in the political setup after none of its leaders was able to win a seat in last year's Legco elections.

 With the imminent abolition of the two municipal councils and the limited number of directly elected seats in the Legco, district councils have become the only forum for second- and third-line aspirants to enter politics.

 Of the 799 candidates who had signed up by the end of nominations on Wednesday, more than half have party affiliations. Seventy-six seats are to be returned unopposed, subject to government confirmation.

 An average of 2.05 candidates will contest each seat, compared with the 1994 figure of 2.2.

 Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, head of the public administration department at the City University, says the response shows district council seats are unable to attract more capable first-timers.

 'It's a serious problem in the system itself in the long-run. There are no links at all between district councils and the Legislative Council. They won't be able to attract more talented people to consider developing a political career,' he said.

 Nevertheless, that is precisely what the Tung administration would like to see in the new political setup. It wants the new District Councils to stick to their advisory role and provide a channel for people from a cross section of the community to make their voices heard.

 If the unimpressive number of candidates does not augur well for a good turnout of voters on November 28, the Tung administration only has itself to blame.

 The whole exercise of turning the three-tier system into a two-layer structure has been designed with the prime objective of dismantling a channel for political participation rather than an attempt to broaden elective politics.

 The reinstatement of the appointed seats, constituting about one-fifth of the district council, only gives further credence to criticism that the Government has attempted to roll back democracy.

 In the run-up to election day, there will be no shortage of rhetoric from officials on the importance of participating. But many will react with indifference to the polls themselves and with perplexity over the sincerity and commitment of the Government in the development of participatory politics in the SAR.

Chris Yeung is the Post's political editor 



Apathy looks a likely winner