“The new Legco members will be cross-sector. Geographical constituency and functional constituency lawmakers are mainly concerned about their own constituencies, but these new members will look at the full picture, and consider the city’s overall interests,” he said.

“They won’t be restrained by the pressure coming from geographical constituents and interest groups. They can scrutinise policies more fairly.”

Tam dismissed suggestions that Beijing was overhauling Hong Kong’s electoral system not only to shut out opposition politicians deemed to be “troublemakers” but also because their pro-establishment counterparts were not capable enough to help improve governance.

“I have not heard anything about Beijing’s disapproval of the pro-establishment camp. Of course, the central government would like the camp to have more communication and cooperation with the local administration … and it hopes those lawmakers can keep on improving their quality,” he said.

“I think there are many things that you cannot blame the pro-establishment legislators for. They reflect the people’s views and did not obstruct the government’s work.”

A powerful new vetting committee will also be appointed to make sure that those running for chief executive, Legco and the Election Committee itself are patriots who pose no threat to national security.

The NPC Standing Committee next week is expected to decide on details such as the actual composition of Legco, as well as the election and vetting committees.

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While it has been assumed that the Election Committee will pick Legco candidates only from within its own ranks, Tam said his understanding was that it would be more than that.

“It’s not just the 1,500 Election Committee members who can run, the 1,500 members are the voters … They can run for Legco seats, but the candidates can also come from outside the committee,” he said,

Tam suggested the committee would elect lawmakers by block voting, meaning that each of the 1,500 members would be asked to choose dozens of candidates, or as many as the number of seats that the committee was allocated.

The past practice was for chief executive hopefuls to obtain nominations from any 150 members of the 1,200-strong Election Committee to qualify as candidates.

In the future, while would-be candidates must still secure nominations from 188, or an eighth of, the committee’s 1,500 members, they must also be nominated by at least 15 members from each of the committee’s five sectors representing various professions, organisations and sections of society.

This is seen as a mechanism to prevent candidates from being overreliant on a single sector, such as the 300-member professional group dominated by the opposition camp.

Asked if lawmakers would also need to secure nominations from all five sectors, Tam said: “I think it should be lower than that for the chief executive … Rather than 15 nominations [from each of the five sectors], can it be three or five? Rather than getting nominations from all five sectors, can it be three or two sectors only?”

Currently, Legco consists of 35 members directly elected from five geographical constituencies and 35 from 29 functional constituencies which are mostly trade-based interest groups.

Pro-establishment politicians believe that the Election Committee’s mandate to elect a “relatively large proportion” of lawmakers means at least 40 or even 50 seats will be allocated to the group to make sure that the legislature is dominated by members loyal to Beijing. But Tam said this was not confirmed yet.

After the March 11 resolution was approved, opposition activists, the British and US governments, and the European Union have all accused Beijing of wiping out dissent and pro-democracy voices in politics. But Tam said members of the next Legco would still be free to criticise the government, but in a constructive way.

China trying to ‘erode democratic elements’ in Hong Kong with electoral reform, G7 says

“Having a lot of opposition voices does not mean it’s the right thing for Legco. If the government is doing a good job, why are they obstructing it deliberately?” he said, referring to the past tactics of opposition lawmakers who have since been weeded out or quit.

Tam said he believed that under the revamped system, there would be no need for the government to appoint individual returning officers to vet candidates for the chief executive, Election Committee and Legco polls.

The powerful vetting committee, of some 10-20 members, would qualify or disqualify candidates before the candidates reached out to the Election Committee for nominations to run for chief executive or Legco, he said. It remained unclear if returning officers would still be needed for municipal-level district council elections.

“Some people have also said that in addition to asking the chief executive to nominate them, vetting committee members should be appointed by the NPC Standing Committee … That could avoid conflict of interest as the chief executive might seek re-election.”

When the Post exclusively reported in December that Beijing was likely to shake up Hong Kong’s political system, analysts interpreted the impending overhaul as a reflection of the central government’s frustration at the inability of pro-establishment parties, such as the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), to lend the local government enough support for tackling the city’s sociopolitical problems.

But Tam, a former DAB chairman, dismissed such suggestions.

“The Bauhinia Party is only a new group founded recently … and the central government did not bless them especially, so there’s no need to talk them up too much,” he said.

“It’s normal that different groups pop up in Hong Kong from time to time. Some people want to use their expertise to serve the community, that’s to be welcomed … Their emergence does not mean that we are not capable, there’s no relationship between the two.”