Carrie Ram “Possibility of Postponing Hong Kong Administrator’s Election”

“Working to fix the loopholes and deficiencies of the election system”
Criticism of pre-work to expel pan-democracy camps

[아시아경제 이현우 기자] Hong Kong’s executive secretary Carrie Ram said that Hong Kong’s election system reform is being discussed led by the central government of China. In the Hong Kong pan-democratic camp, criticism has been raised that the central government of China is a trick to increase control over Hong Kong and to quit the pan-democracy camp.

According to Hong Kong RTHK Broadcasting on the 8th, at a press conference held after attending both sessions on the same day, Minister Ram said, “Hong Kong has a task to reorganize the election system.” It is not possible to proceed with widespread public opinion gathering right away due to the urgency,” he said, and that both the legislative elections that were already delayed last year and the elections for the executive minister, which were scheduled to be held at the end of the year, could be delayed. He added, “For the reorganization of the election system, we will have to enact more than 20 principles and by-laws,” he said. “The electoral group elections have been held in December every five years, but this time it may change.”

Earlier, Hong Kong was scheduled to hold a legislative election on September 6 last year, but it has been announced that it will postpone it for one year due to the corona 19 incident a month ahead of the election. Following As the Chinese government began reorganizing the Hong Kong election system, it announced that the legislative elections would be delayed again this year. “The electoral system is not being reorganized in favor of someone,” Ram said. “The work is going on to fix the loopholes and flaws of the electoral system in order to realize a patriot-ruled Hong Kong.”

Local media outlets in Hong Kong reported that the number of legislators is expected to increase from 70 to 90 due to the reorganization of the Chinese government’s electoral system, and all legislative candidates are expected to be selected from the executive minister’s electoral team.

Hong Kong pan-democracy camps are criticizing that the Chinese government has brought a reform of the electoral system as a strategy to oust the pan-democracy camp. Hong Kong Democratic Party representative and former council member Rokinhei said in an interview with RTHK, “With the reorganization of the election system, I will not be able to run in the future.” He pointed out that “there is more system in place to judge the qualifications of runners,” and “the authorities are trying to drive out the pan-democracy camp.”

Reporter Lee Hyun-woo [email protected]