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Democrat proposal smacks of self-interest

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The passing of the revised political reform proposal seems to have put a temporary stop to our long-running debate over constitutional reform. Now the fine tuning has begun.

The Democrats have proposed a relaxation of the rules for the five new functional seats in the legislature: they want to allow candidates who are not district councillors to stand for the seats - as long as they have 'substantial connections' to district affairs.

In principle, the revised electoral package is supposed to increase the democratic element of the functional constituency system - opening the voting to some 3.2 million voters.

But what the Democrats are proposing has nothing to do with boosting democracy. It's obvious they want to change the game plan to accommodate former district councillors, including some of their party members.

Many suspect that the Democrats' support for the electoral package had more to do with creating political opportunities for themselves than advancing democratic development.

If they are really trying to create a more favourable condition for the political comebacks of party colleagues such as Sin Chung-kai and Tik Chi-yuen, they will have to be prepared for political repercussions, such as a loss of credibility and tarnished reputation.

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