John Lee sets new elections for 7 December (for patriots only)

The Hong Kong government has announced the date of the vote for the renewal of the Legislative Council, the local ‘parliament’ now inaccessible to pro-democracy members, most of whom are still in prison. Four years ago, barely 30% of voters turned out. And a survey conducted in recent weeks revealed the discontent towards an institution ‘where they only make speeches to flatter Beijing’.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - The Hong Kong government has set 7 December as the date for the elections to renew the Legislative Council (LegCo), the local ‘parliament’ currently made up of ‘patriots only’, whose mandate expires at the end of this year. Chief Executive John Lee announced the date of the consultation, adding that a separate vote will be held in September for the all-powerful Election Committee, the body elected by a few thousand loyalists of Beijing that in fact chooses who is eligible to run for LegCo.

Hong Kong therefore continues to confirm the ‘rite’ of elections, even if the real representativeness of the Legislative Assembly has been completely undermined by the arrests of all opposition voices during the 2019 crackdown and the introduction in 2021 of a new electoral system that - in addition to vetoing unwelcome candidates - assigns just 20 seats out of a total of 90 in the Legislative Council by direct popular vote.

The result is that only 30.2% of voters turned out in the December 2021 election, compared to 71% who had gone to the polls just two years earlier for the district elections, which were overwhelmingly won by pro-democracy candidates who later ended up as victims of Beijing's repression.

45 opposition figures - including 10 former legislators - were convicted a few months ago of criminal association aimed at subversion, precisely for having organised unofficial primary elections held in July 2020, with the aim of winning a majority in the LegCo for the pro-democracy camp.

Despite all this, John Lee claims that the authorities will guarantee that the elections will be held as scheduled at the scheduled time to elect a new group of ‘patriotic, capable and responsible’ legislators.

How little the inhabitants of Hong Kong believe in these promises is demonstrated by a survey published a few days ago by the local think tank Path of Democracy, in which half of those interviewed expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the city's legislative body, which has no opposition. About 48% of those interviewed said they were dissatisfied with the Legislative Council, while almost 41% said they were dissatisfied with the government.

‘This dissatisfaction may be linked to the high costs associated with the LegCo since its inception and public scrutiny over the quality of its deliberations, which have been marred by numerous controversies’, commented Path of Democracy, a body founded by Ronny Tong, a member of the Executive Council, the highest advisory body in Hong Kong that conducts surveys twice a year on a series of issues relating to the city's political and economic development.

‘People think that many legislators only make speeches to flatter [Beijing] and rarely express their own ideas,’ Tong told reporters in Cantonese. ’Furthermore, it is believed that they are not familiar with legislative proposals or that they are passive in examining them.’