Rational HK LegCo election post-national security law
Residents to defend peaceful new normal by voting
It has been a very busy week for candidates running for the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) election, to be held on Sunday, as some of them have a packed schedule for campaigning, attending forums to mobilize the public to vote, and using all kinds of social media platforms. As Hong Kong will soon embrace its first LegCo election since the national security law for Hong Kong and electoral reform took effect, which bars radical anti-China and anti-government rioters from entering the local governance structure, the city is expecting a peaceful, rational and practical election, which, experts said, will also be the new normal for the political landscape.
“I’m optimistic for the upcoming election,” said Lai Siu Chung, a 49-yearold bus driver, who attended a candidate forum at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (HKCEC) on Friday. Lai said that he believes 90 percent of voters who attended the forum will vote on Sunday. About 1,000 residents attended it with palpable high enthusiasm for election day, he said.
In the eyes of Hung Kam-in, a campaign manager of a candidate, this year’s election campaign was smooth, secure and rational, and the patriotic voices were heard by more local residents.
“Previous LegCo elections in Hong Kong used to look like elections in the US in terms of campaign means, as opposition forces used inflammatory and emotional language to stir up the emotions of voters, making them vote with their emotions regardless of right or wrong, and incited confrontations with other candidates,” Hung said.
“They [candidates] like to stand in streets encouraging people to vote because they feel much safer since the implementation of the national security law for Hong Kong and they know their campaigns will not be threatened,” he said, noting that the opposition candidates are more
rational this year and the radical opposition forces have been disqualified.
Ahead of the district council election in 2019, pro-establishment lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu was stabbed in Tuen Mun by a man who approached him with a floral bouquet and a hidden knife, sparking growing concerns over outspoken pro-government lawmakers being violently attacked by radicals.
While Western media outlets such as Reuters, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera, which have been covering Hong Kong issues in a biased and selective way for a long time, try to depict this year’s LegCo election as “unfair” and a “selection rather than election,” and amplify how tame election day on Sunday will be, more Hong Kong residents voiced support for the new election system and their expectations for the seventh LegCo that will commence in January 2022.
Under the national security law for Hong Kong and electoral reform that ensure only patriots govern the city, those shocking and chaotic scenes that occurred at the LegCo meetings in previous years won’t be seen again, and the council won’t be a place for meaningless political battles again, former lawmakers, scholars and local residents said.
New normal
The LegCo elections used to see intense conflicts as some radical candidates from the opposition often attacked their opponents fiercely, hyping some controversial topics and tapping into public sentiment against the HKSAR government or the mainland. But now the overall atmosphere is calm and candidates are competing with each other in a civilized way, said Lau Siu-kai, vicepresident of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies.
Under the principle of only patriots governing Hong Kong, “such manner should be a new normal for Hong Kong political life,” Lau said.
Numerous campaigning took place in Hong Kong this week, all in a peaceful manner. But when some people looked back to the previous LegCo election or the district council election in 2019, they remembered candidates pointing fingers at each other, spreading rumors and even making personal attacks or insults.
Some residents cheered the “farreaching significance” of the LegCo election, as a recent survey from research firm Zijing suggested that 70 percent of 1,528 registered voters recognized the fairness of the LegCo election under the new electoral system, featuring broad representation.
China’s top lawmakers unanimously approved the electoral reform plan for Hong Kong in March, another major step following the implementation of the national security law for Hong Kong in fixing the loopholes in the city’s governance structure. In May, lawmakers in Hong Kong finalized amendments for the election overhaul which increased the seats of the LegCo from 70 to 90, including 40 seats from the Election Committee, 30 from functional constituencies, and 20 which are directly elected.
The electoral reform is designed to shield the city from rioting, citywide rampage and unprecedented social turmoil in 2019, as some former lawmakers who are also anti-China radical rioters played a major role in fueling the hatred and anti-government sentiment. But more importantly, the overhaul will end filibustering tactics commonly used by radical opposition lawmakers, who used the LegCo as a place for battling with the HKSAR government and lawmakers from other political groups, even if bills proposed by the government or other lawmakers were beneficial to Hong Kong society.
The Global Times discovered that at least 108 bills on livelihood, including medical, traffic, elderly care, and local infrastructure projects were delayed between 2014 and 2020, according to incomplete statistics, due to filibustering and other tools designed by opposition lawmakers to bring dysfunction to the LegCo.
When we look back, the LegCo used to be like a place to wage battles no matter what the circumstance was. Whether the bill was good or bad, opposition lawmakers fought against it only because they had a different political stance or ideological leaning, said Tik Chi-yuen, a former lawmaker from the pan-democracy camp. “Turning the LegCo into a place for political battles over the past year served no good for the HKSAR government, political groups, Hong Kong citizens and social development,” Tik said, noting that it should be a place for problem solving, not troublemaking.