HK election results a positive sign for democracy

On Monday morning, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region announced the results of the Election Committee election. Of the 412 candidates, 364 won and got their seats.

That's the first election of Hong Kong SAR after the National People's Congress Standing Committee announced the decision to improve its election system in March. Unlike the past elections in which some home-haters used hyped up rhetoric against the motherland and politicized everything, the election this time featured candidates focusing more on the daily lives of ordinary people. As reported, some candidates running for the election had talked with residents on the street, and developed their own ideas on how to boost the economy and enhance Hong Kong people's livelihoods.

In other words, the election in Hong Kong became a benign race on who can contribute more to the common good, instead of a vicious competition about who spoke the loudest. That will in turn ensure the elected best serve the Hong Kong people's interests.

This is also the first election held after the Credentials Committee was created in July. With the committee formed by seven members, all with impeccable reputations, anyone who acts against Hong Kong and the nation as a whole will be sorted out.

That was the case when two candidates were disqualified on Aug 26. Yet, the fact that there were only two showed the home-haters are actually very few in number and not popular at all.

These changes do not make the elections in Hong Kong any less democratic. The improved Elections Committee is more representative, and also more balanced among different groups. The voices of various groups are all expressed well in the elections, while those wasting everybody's precious time for the sake of political speculation are kept out.

The election on Sunday marks a positive start for Hong Kong's democracy after the improvement. Its success means that the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong" will be carried out more firmly in the political institutions of the Hong Kong SAR.

Hopefully the two elections that follow, one for the LegCo and another for the chief executive, will both continue the trend and go smoothly.

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