Functional constituencies in Hong Kong’s Legco will all be contested for first time, but is the competition just for show?
- Some candidates’ manifestos are virtually indistinguishable from their ostensible rivals’, while others’ platforms amount to little more than slogans
- Analyst says some ‘taking the plunge simply to heed Beijing’s call for competition in the Legco election’
Some functional constituency candidates in Hong Kong’s coming Legislative Council election have platform slogans perceived by critics to be vague, while the mission statements of others appear similar to that of their rivals, prompting analysts to question the competitiveness of the poll.
The election will be the first for the legislature since Beijing’s overhaul of the city’s political system to ensure only “patriots” held power. It is also the first time since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997 that all 30 seats among the 28 trade-based functional constituencies will be contested.
But some challengers’ vague “platforms” submitted to the Registration and Electoral Office have done little to distinguish them from their competitors, and observers have noted that many slogans amount simply to bland catchphrases such as “new face, new pace, and new page”, “new chapter for Hong Kong society”, “love the country” and “good governance”.
Tian Feilong, an associate professor at Beihang University’s law school who advises Beijing on Hong Kong affairs, said it appeared that competition in some functional constituencies was less than genuine, with campaigning reduced to a formality.
“Chanting slogans is not good enough. Those candidates fail to spell out how they will address the demands of the voters in their sectors,” he said.
A total of 153 Legco hopefuls, including 67 running in functional constituencies, passed the Candidate Eligibility Review Committee’s vetting process and were cleared to run in next month’s election.
In addition to creating the vetting body, Beijing’s overhaul of the political system expanded the legislature from 70 to 90 seats, while simultaneously slashing the number of directly elected ones from 35 to just 20.