Bill on improving electoral system published by HKSAR government

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government Tuesday published a bill on improving the electoral system in the Gazette.

The draft law, the Improving Electoral System (Consolidated Amendments) Bill 2021, was released in Hong Kong after revisions at the state level finished at the end of March.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress adopted on March 30 the amended Annex I and Annex II to the HKSAR Basic Law, which concerns methods for the selection of the HKSAR chief executive and the formation of the Legislative Council (LegCo).

According to the amended Annex I and Annex II to the HKSAR Basic Law, LegCo will consist of 40 members from the Election Committee constituency, 30 from the functional constituencies and 20 from the geographical constituencies. The 20 geographical constituency members will be returned by the double seats and single vote method from 10 geographical constituencies across the city, with five in the New Territories, three in Kowloon and two on Hong Kong Island.

Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam explained at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon: “When the number of directly elected geographical constituency members in the Legislative Council is down to 20, we are required to look at how we organize district-based elections in Hong Kong and try to come up with these 10 districts, each to return two members into the Legislative Council.

“So an easy way to do it is to merge the much smaller constituencies that made up the District Council elections and also (to) take into account the size of the population. “We are following the established rule that is within a range, it will not have a district which is too huge, too large (or) another one which is too small. So that is the basis.”

The seventh term LegCo elections will take place on December 19, the Chief Executive added.