Opinion | The pressure’s on Hong Kong patriots in the new political landscape

Name: Hong Kong opposition district councillors say farewell to constituents after mass resignation
Uploaded: 2021-08-22T22:45:19.000Z
Duration: 6 min 32 s
Description: Hong Kong opposition district councillors say farewell to constituents after mass resignation

Beijing is cracking the whip to ensure the Election Committee produces the necessary political support for the chief executive it selects

With the opposition neutered, patriots will have no excuse if they can’t resolve the city’s social problems. Failure could spell the end of Hong Kong people running Hong Kong

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People walk past a banner outside Maple Street Playground in Sham Shui Po promoting the electoral reforms announced by Beijing on March 30. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

Alice Wu

Published: 6:45am, 23 Aug 2021Updated: 6:45am, 23 Aug 2021

We are beginning to see how the new political system Beijing has tailor-made for Hong Kong will change the electoral landscape. With the nomination period for the Election Committee elections having closed uneventfully earlier this month, the curtain has been drawn.

Significantly fewer nominations came in than those received for the 2016 Election Committee polls. While there are 300 more seats than the 1,200 seats available in 2016, only some subsectors will be contested.

Even before the elections take place next month, we already have a pretty clear picture of what the set of the new political stage looks like.

The Election Committee – once tasked with the single but important job of selecting the chief executive – used to be considered a political construct of diminishing powers. Hong Kong had long been working towards realising what was written in the Basic Law, that is, achieving the ultimate goal of selecting the chief executive by universal suffrage.

The last time the city had a seat at the table for political reform discussions, the Election Committee was expected to be reduced to a nomination body for the chief executive.

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Hong Kong opposition district councillors say farewell to constituents after mass resignation

Since then, the committee’s status has been upgraded, and it will become the centre of political power. It will not only choose our chief executive, rather than only playing a vetting role, but it will now determine who can take part in elections in Hong Kong.

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