Hong Kong now has a new electoral system . My party reached out to people from all walks of life, listening to their expectations of the new electoral system. Given the pain caused by and the vivid memory of the chaos and riots in 2019, many people welcome the new electoral system with its mechanism to safeguard our national security. We have seen the dire consequences of an electoral system in the past without any restrictions to safeguard national security. We ended up with a fiasco where Legislative Council members allegedly colluded with foreign governments, and not only aided and abetted the riots but also called for foreign governments to impose sanctions on Hong Kong. The chaos in 2019 was indeed a wake-up call. If the central government had sat on its hands, “one country, two systems” would have been completely destroyed. The opposition’s plan was to paralyse Legco and the Hong Kong government, and there was even a final step to invite international sanctions on China. Some protest leaders pledged to cause Hong Kong to be de facto broken away from China. National security aside, we have long been suffering from political conflict resulting from the hatred against the mainland incited by the opposition. By demonising China, they stir up conflict with the mainland. The city became deeply polarised. The hatred culminated in the tumultuous riots of 2019. The new electoral system would enable us to be immune to such political conflict and malicious distortion of our one country, two systems framework. We can finally focus on tackling deep-seated livelihood issues. The new electoral system heralds the principle of balanced participation across different sectors, and more importantly, it enables participants to focus more on the overall interests of the city, and effectively reach consensus when coming across conflicts instead of inflaming tensions and intensifying the conflict to woo constituents’ support. We have had enough of the hatred stirred up during elections in the past. Holden Chow, Legislative Council member, Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong Who’ll go for boosters given strict Covid-19 rules? The frustration among vaccinated residents over the quarantine rules when returning to Hong Kong has no doubt increased over the report that the mainland border will not reopen until March or April next year at the earliest (“Coronavirus: Hong Kong pinning border hopes on vaccination, zero local infections, but Guangdong official says reopening unlikely before March”, September 9). With this a precursor to opening up to the rest of the world, I wonder if the vaccination programme is in danger of failing if boosters are required. With little relaxation over the wearing of masks or quarantine rules, should booster shots be advised, I can imagine the uptake will be limited. Surely, as a first step, the wearing of masks should be relaxed to see if Hong Kong is really free of Covid-19. If cases arise, then action can be taken to contain any outbreak, but we need to at least try to get out of this situation before another year goes by. Duncan Hancock, Lamma Adopt a sensible 10-day quarantine I refer to your report , “Hong Kong coronavirus quarantine: number of rooms, time in isolation for helpers not changing, labour minister says” (September 12), in which Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-Kwong said the “overwhelming majority of cases involving helpers were detected upon arrival or within three days”. The scientific consensus seems to be that the Delta variant has a much shorter incubation period than previous strains. Given Mr Law has said that the vast majority of cases are picked up within three days of arrival, could he perhaps tell us how many cases are being detected beyond a 10-day period? It would seem that there is very little scientific basis for the 14-21 day mandatory hotel quarantine policy and if most cases are detected within three days of arrival, then moving to a 10-day quarantine would be sensible. Over the last 18 months, many letters to the Post have asked for government clarification around the thinking behind its draconian quarantine policy, but to no avail. It is surely time for more realistic border controls to be implemented that accurately reflect the risks we face while meeting the goal of making international travel more possible and keeping Hong Kong safe. A 10-day quarantine could be an initial step towards meeting the government’s zero-Covid policy, and at some point realising that the only realistic path is to adopt a Covid-endemic strategy and learning to live alongside the virus. Francis Leach, Mid-Levels A better way for China to enjoy public holidays Public holidays in mainland China are complicated. For example, the forthcoming Mid-Autumn Festival holidays fall on September 19-21. But people have to work on September 18, a Saturday, to make up for it. For the Chinese National Day holidays in October, there are seven consecutive days off – but the Sunday before and the Saturday after are mandated working days. Maybe there is a better way to simplify the calendar. First of all, leave all the weekends undisturbed so people can enjoy them. The National Day holiday could be five weekdays instead – which would still add up to a seven-day break with the weekend freed up. I don’t think people would mind if there’s just one day off to celebrate the Mooncake Festival. For the Lunar New Year, people could be given the option of extending the holiday till the Lantern Festival on the 15th day, but the official days off could still be kept to seven days, not including the weekends. Khaw Wei Kang, Shenzhen