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Willa Wu

Hong Kong will begin the nomination process for its next Legislative Council on October 24, with the current term to end on the same day, the government has announced.
Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki said on Wednesday that the date was set after taking the election date of December 7 into consideration.
In a letter to Legco President Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen, the city’s No 2 official said that the current legislature term would end on October 24 “to prevent giving undue advantage to incumbent members over other candidates during the election period, or creating an impression to that effect”.
He added that the arrangement, which would be gazetted on Friday, was consistent with the procedure followed by the previous Legco.
The letter did not specify the duration of the nomination period. For the previous election in 2021, it lasted 14 days.
The legislature is currently on its final summer recess and will hold its first chamber meeting on September 3.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu is scheduled to deliver his fourth Policy Address to the lawmakers in September.

Beijing approved an election overhaul for Hong Kong in 2021, under which only “patriots” are allowed to hold political power.
Under the new system, the legislature has been expanded from 70 to 90 seats. However, the number of seats representing geographical constituencies has been reduced from 35 to 20, a cut of 43 per cent.
A lion’s share of 40 seats is allocated to the Election Committee constituency, which is selected by a powerful body predominantly composed of Beijing loyalists and which also elects the city’s leader. The remaining 30 seats go to trade-based functional constituencies.
All candidates are pre-vetted by officials to ensure their level of “patriotism” meets the required standards.
Veteran political commentator Sonny Lo Shiu-hing said he expected a more competitive election in the geographical constituency this year compared with four years ago.
The first election under the revamped system, held in December 2021, recorded a turnout of just 30.2 per cent, the lowest since Hong Kong’s handover to Chinese rule in 1997. About 1.35 million voters cast ballots in the geographical constituencies.
“Many were on the fence about the new electoral system, hence the less competitive election. After four years of watching how the new legislature has run, I think more would be encouraged to run for a seat,” he said.
He also added that the competitiveness of the election would be enhanced if more moderate candidates are encouraged to join the race.
The government planned to spend HK$1.28 billion (US$165 million) on the December 7 election, set to be the second under a “patriots-only” electoral overhaul. The budget represents a 52 per cent increase from the HK$841 million spent on the 2021 election.
In a paper submitted to the Legco finance committee in April, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said the increase would be mainly spent on election promotion and technological appliances.
A total of HK$177 million would be allocated for election promotion, HK$814 million for technological appliances and voting venues’ rents, and HK$289 million to pay the possible 37,000 personnel, according to the paper.
But the administration refused to set any goal for turnout rate, saying it was affected by many different factors.
A by-election for the Election Committee subsector will take place on September 7, with 90 positions to be filled among the 967 elected seats on the committee. The 1,500-strong committee also includes appointed and ex officio members.


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The nomination process for the next Legislative Council will begin on October 24, with the current legislature standing prorogued on the same day. Photo: Felix Wong

Under the new system, the legislature has been expanded from 70 to 90 seats, but the number of seats representing geographical constituencies has been reduced from 35 to 20. Photo: AFP

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News

Hong Kong

Politics

Government aligns nomination and end of current term dates ahead of election on December 7


Government aligns nomination and end of current term dates ahead of election on December 7.


Legislative Council of Hong Kong

China

John Lee

Executive Council of Hong Kong

Hong Kong to begin Legislative Council nominations on October 24

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Government aligns nomination and end of current term dates ahead of election on December 7

Government aligns nomination and end of current term dates ahead of election on December 7