Why redrawing map for Hong Kong district council elections is a bigger deal for opposition camp
Political scientist Stan Wong says a more transparent process for constituency boundary changes is needed to allay concerns over fairness of elections
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians are crying foul over proposals to redraw the boundaries of more than a quarter of the seats for coming district council elections, believing they will be adversely hit – and a political scientist says they have a point.
Stan Wong Hok-wui, associate professor in Polytechnic University’s department of applied social studies, last year published a study with surprising findings – buildings in constituencies held by pan-democrats were twice as likely to be switched to a different district than those in seats controlled by the pro-establishment camp, and “redistricting” could cut the chances of pro-democracy incumbents being re-elected.
Wong said the lack of media attention on the issue of boundary alterations was partly because it was too technical and proposals could be done with seemingly legitimate reasons of demographic changes.
But he said the findings of his study on gerrymandering were significant and only a more transparent process of redistricting could allay concerns over whether elections were fair.
There are 18 district councils in Hong Kong. They are responsible for scrutinising government funding and coordinating community initiatives, and also serve as an important leg-up for parties to grab seats in the Legislative Council.
The Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) has proposed redrawing boundaries in 128 constituencies and creating 21 new seats in 10 districts for polls in 2019 to take into account population growth.
In his study, “Gerrymandering in Electoral Autocracies: Evidence from Hong Kong”, Wong compiled a data set with the city’s 38,000 residential buildings and tracked changes covering the election years of 2003, 2007 and 2011.