Hong Kong Legco election: pro-establishment heavyweights wave off rumours Beijing is issuing instructions on who to back
- Top politicians say Election Committee voters will make their own decisions in Sunday’s poll, the first since Beijing’s system overhaul
- Ministers escalate campaign to boost turnout, but higher proportion of residents now indicating they will not cast their ballots
But with just two days until polling stations open, a survey has revealed that a growing number of residents say they are not planning to vote, amounting to nearly 40 per cent of the population.
04:05
Hong Kong elections: How much do people know about the Beijing-revamped Legislative Council polls?
Under the drastic reforms, the number of directly elected seats has been slashed from 35 to 20 in an expanded 90-member legislature, with another 30 filled by trade-based functional constituencies.
The remaining 40 seats will be returned by the Election Committee, a powerful body comprising 1,448 mostly pro-Beijing members – fuelling concerns the results could be easily manipulated.
Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole delegate to the apex of Beijing’s legislature, on Friday insisted that members were not following orders from anyone as he responded to questions from reporters on rumours that Beijing had provided them with a list of endorsed candidates.
“The some 1,400 Election Committee members will make their own decisions after careful consideration,” said Tam, of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. “I didn’t receive any instructions as to how to vote.”