Hong Kong leaders anticipate bright future under new electoral system

Bernard Charnwut Chan, convener of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, who came to cast his vote for the 2021 Election Committee Subsector Ordinary Elections at Wan Chai's Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Here is the full transcript of Chan's comments.

Q: What do you think of the significance of this improved electoral system?

This is the first election after the electoral reform, so it has great significance, especially the 1,500 people that are to be elected will have the task to choose the next chief executive, as well as (being) the nominating body for the next Legislative Council. And they are also going to elect 40 members of the LegCo, so these 1,500 people will be very important gatekeepers for the whole electoral reform for Hong Kong. So I surely hope that the 1,500 Election Committee members will do their job to make sure that the right people will serve Hong Kong.

Q: What are your expectations for members of the committee?

Given what happened in the 2019 social unrest, I think the 1,500 members will definitely want to make sure that the right people can come forward to serve Hong Kong, whether as the next chief executive or as a LegCo member, because Hong Kong cannot afford to have another unrest. We cannot afford to have a very unstable economy.

In fact, the 1,500 members will be tasked to choose the next government to help Hong Kong to continue to prosper, and of course, to do so, we also need to work with the mainland. I think we all recognize that the future of Hong Kong is very much in line with the prosperity of our country, so we definitely need to choose the right sort of people who are able to bridge the one country and two systems together.