China overhauls Hong Kong’s poll system
Context: China passed sweeping changes for Hong Kong’s electoral system that will give Beijing-appointed politicians a greater say in running the Special Administrative Region (SAR), marking the biggest change since the handover in 1997.
Details:
- The National People’s Congress (NPC), the Communist Party-controlled legislature, approved to improve Hong Kong’s electoral system.
- At the heart of the new proposal is a move to give Beijing-appointed politicians greater power in running the HKSAR’s politics, through a newly expanded Election Committee of 1,500 members.
- The move was to ensure that the electoral system should conform to the policy of ‘one country, two systems’.
- Currently, only half of the 70 members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) are directly elected and the rest are nominated.
- With this change, the number of LegCo members will be increased to 90, with the additional members also nominated, thereby reducing the share of elected representatives.
- The new electoral system is the second significant change in the administration of the HKSAR since the 2019 protests, with a national security law passed last year that lists penalties for “secession” and “subversion”.
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