Christian churches remain on Hong Kong election committee
Members of the Christian Council also agree to draw lots for their 10 representatives on body that will help decide the city’s chief executive
Hong Kong’s Protestant churches have decided to keep their 10 seats on the committee that elects the city’s leader, and choose its representatives by drawing lots.
The Christian Council – an umbrella group of 21 churches, denominations and societies – made the ruling at an extraordinary general meeting last night.
About 90 members, many of whom are pastors, were eligible to vote at the meeting, but only 52 turned out.
Forty-six voted in favour of keeping the seats, while six opposed the move.
In a subsequent vote on how to determine the 10 seats, 27 of the 44 who voted supported drawing lots for the candidates, while 17 supported an election – the method used in 2006 and 2011.
In 2012, Leung Chun-ying was elected by a 1,200-strong committee comprising business elites, professionals and 10 representatives from each of the city’s six main religions.
Leung’s victory came months after the Christian Council organised a poll in which about 17,000 Protestants elected 10 representatives to sit on the committee.
Since last year, a group of Protestants, led by Democratic Party member Lam Tsz-kin, has been calling for the 10 seats to be vacated as a way to protest against the lack of a direct election for the chief executive.
Lam told the Post that while the council failed to explain why the seats could not be vacated, it was “a small progress” for it to decide on drawing lots.
“Because it is not creating an opportunity for pro-establishment candidates to monopolise the 10 seats,” said Lam, arguing that the poll in 2011 only favoured candidates from large churches.
The council’s general secretary, Reverend Po Kam-cheong, said there were problems with elections in the past.
“In the past, there were only some [17,000] who voted. There were also queries regarding how much money candidates could spend to promote themselves,” Po said.
But the chairman of the council, Reverend Eric So Shing-yit, believes the decision yesterday was not meant to stop people from electing pro-establishment members.
So added that the lot drawing method was used once in 2001.
“At that time, any Protestant could become candidate as long as their identities were confirmed by their churches and had registered as voters in Hong Kong,” So said.
The council would then take the list of candidates to the Registration and Electoral Office, which would draw 10 members from it.
Po said the council’s executive committee will decide on the details of the drawing of lots by the end of July.
The council’s decision came after a public consultation session in April, when about 80 Protestants showed up.
In September last year, the Post reported that the council’s then chairman, the Reverend Yuen Tin-yau, was alone among leaders of the city’s leading religions in suggesting Christian churches “could give up” their seats.
