Deng: HK legislature to broaden representation with proposed changes

Enabling the Election Committee, tasked with electing the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Chief Executive, to nominate and elect some of the city's lawmakers will help establish a legislature with broader representation and facilitate administrative-legislative relations, deputy head of central government's top body overseeing Hong Kong affairs said on Friday.

Speaking to the press in Beijing, Deng Zhonghua, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, said the new arrangement will help break the limitation of vested interests in the current legislature.

It could also supplement the inadequacies of the body's current election mode based on functional constituencies and geographical constituencies. These will enable the legislature to better represent the overall interests of Hong Kong society, he said.

The Election Committee's participation in both chief executive and legislative elections will also offer a similar voting base of the CE and legislators. It is conducive for the smooth communication between the SAR's executive and legislative bodies and consolidates the executive-led administration stipulated under the Basic Law, he continued.

He also said that the arrangement of having Election Committee members to elect lawmakers was used in Hong Kong before. Such a practice was adopted in electing the HKSAR's first and second Legislative Council.

Deng stressed that resuming the previous arrangement cannot be simply interpreted as a so-called "regression" of democracy. The gradual and orderly development of democracy does not mean that there must be an increase of seats of geographical constituencies in every improvement, he said.

As long as the general trend and direction of the improvement is to expand democracy and guarantee people's well-being and fundamental rights, such as democratic rights, it is a good system, he stressed.

Zhang Yong, deputy head of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, told the same conference that according to the NPCSC decision on Aug 11 last year, the HKSAR can decide on its own when to hold the next legislative election.

It needs to take into account the SAR's actual conditions, the revised provisions of Annex I and Annex II of the Basic Law, and relevant local laws, he added.