#BREAKING: Beijing will give the “Hong Kong Chief Executive Election Committee the new power to nominate all candidates for Legislative Council members and directly elect some members to the legislature,” Wang Chen, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee vice-chairman.
Instead of the 35:35 balance between the Legislative Council’s geographical and functional constituencies, the overhaul will adopt a new 20:30:40 proportion and divide the legislature into three components, pro-Bejing media HK01 reported. hk01.com/article/595515
Meanwhile, with 40 seats, representatives from the Chief Executive Election Committee will be the most powerful division among the three. As pro-democracy voices are expected to be eradicated in the shake-up, pro-Beijing voices will likely overwhelm the new 90-seat legislature.
With electoral rules to be expectedly overturned, the decades-long efforts Hong Kongers have made to achieve democracy under Beijing’s “One country, two systems” framework have eventually come to nought.
And it’s fair to say the District Council election held in November 2019, in which the pro-democracy/opposition bloc won a landslide victory, was likely indeed Hong Kong’s last free election in the foreseeable future.
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