Lawmakers adopt HK electoral reform Bills

Beijing: The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, adopted Bills about amending the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The amendments to Annex I and Annex II of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law were adopted by national lawmakers during the two-day 27th session of the 13th NPC Standing Committee, which ended yesterday.

The two annexes deal with the method of selection of the Hong Kong SAR chief executive and the formation and voting procedures of the Legislative Council.

This came after the NPC adopted a decision at its annual session on March 11 to improve Hong Kong’s electoral system.

The amendments to the two annexes were part of the provisions of the decision.

Reform of the electoral system clarified by the decision also includes greater powers being given to Hong Kong’s Election Committee in nominating candidates for chief executive and the Legislative Council, as well as an increase in the number of Election Committee members from 1,200 to 1,500 from five sectors.

NPC Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Wang Chen said while explaining the decision during the annual session of the NPC on March 5 that the reform was to deal with the loopholes and deficiencies in Hong Kong’s current electoral system and to ensure the city was administered by patriots.

At a news conference on March 12 following the passage of the decision, Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, said the improvements to the electoral system were urgently required because the rioting and turbulence in Hong Kong in recent years showed that anti-China disruptive forces had managed to enter the local government structure as a result of electoral deficiencies.

Therefore, he said, improving the electoral system provided an institutional guarantee for implementing the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”, which was conducive to the sound and sustained implementation of “one country, two systems” in the Hong Kong SAR.

Meanwhile, several surveys in Hong Kong showed that the majority of Hong Kong people supported the NPC’s decision and believed it would brighten Hong Kong’s prospects.

Among the institutions and organisations that carried out surveys were local think-tank Bauhinia Institute, which randomly interviewed 1,366 Hong Kong residents between March 22 and 27.

Around 69.7% of them supported the NPC decision and 66.8% agreed with the composition and number of members of the new Election Committee, considering that it could better reflect the overall interests of Hong Kong society.

The survey revealed that 65.1% of the respondents agreed to set up a candidate qualification review committee to completely exclude anti-China troublemakers from the governance structure of the HKSAR.

More than 68% of the respondents said the NPC’s decision strengthened their confidence in Hong Kong’s future. — China Daily/ANN/Xinhua