ExplainerWith a full picture of Hong Kong’s electoral system overhaul to become clear in days ahead, here’s what we are still waiting to find out

Name: ‘We do not want unpatriotic people in our political system,’ says Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam
Uploaded: 2021-03-29T02:00:15.000Z
Duration: 2 min 40 s
Description: ‘We do not want unpatriotic people in our political system,’ says Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam

From a change in the balance of power in the Legislative Council, to the number of directly elected seats on offer, many details have yet to be made public

Analysts will be closely watching several key areas over the next few days

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A full picture of the overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system and how it will impact the Legislative Council will become clear in the days ahead. Photo: Winson Wong

Jeffie LamandTony Cheung

Published: 10:00am, 29 Mar 2021Updated: 10:20am, 29 Mar 2021

Beijing laid down key principles earlier this month on how to shake up Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure the city’s governing power would be firmly held by “patriots”, a drastic overhaul critics have seen as aimed at wiping out dissent.

The changes include the establishment of a new high-level committee to weed out hopefuls deemed a threat to national security, and a new power granted to the Beijing-controlled Election Committee to not only pick the city’s leader, but also nominate lawmakers and send its own representatives to the Legislative Council.

But key details of the proposals, which could determine the ultimate fate of the marginalised opposition bloc and also bring implications for their pro-establishment counterparts, have yet to be announced.

Here are some areas analysts will be watching closely:

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‘We do not want unpatriotic people in our political system,’ says Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam

How could the balance of power change in Legco?

Under the resolution already passed by the National People’s Congress (NPC), Legco, which is to be expanded from 70 to 90 seats, will no longer be equally divided between the trade-based functional constituencies and the geographically based, directly elected constituencies. Instead, a new bloc of lawmakers, to be hand-picked by the all-powerful Election Committee dominated by Beijing-loyalists, will return for the first time since the relevant constituencies were abolished in 2004.