DC election | A demanding electoral system worthy of our votes

Jacky Wong Chun Kit

The seventh District Council election will be held on 10th December. Recently, our chief executive John Lee Ka-chiu stated three reasons why civil servants have to hit the ballot boxes. As Lee says, officials should support government policies, take the initiative to fulfill civil duties, and select suitable candidates who can foster community development. To me, aside from civil servants, raising the awareness of Hong Kong residents to cast their votes and support the new election system is equally important.

In fact, the electoral reform is much more demanding than expected. In the past, when ideological confrontation prevailed, the pro-establishment camp sent one candidate to compete for a single seat in most circumstances. The candidate will be overwhelmed with supporters from different political parties. He can freely deploy his time to a small constituency only.

However, the newly introduced reform merges the original 450 constituencies into 44 larger ones. That is to say, to run for directly elected seats, the candidate has to go through around 10 original constituencies. Candidates must examine local issues on a broader basis. It also becomes a tremendous challenge to candidates, both physically and psychologically, accompanied by a series of formidable tasks, including organization, promotion, and finance, to name but a few.

Aside from direct election, 176 seats are chosen by government-appointed members in three municipal-level committees. Seemingly, it looks simply like coordinating appointed representatives, a smaller number of persons in comparison with voters of one single geographical constituency. Remember that they are representatives from the business, education, social welfare and community development sectors. Sincerity is of utmost importance here. I have heard that many candidates have to meet their voters in district committee constituencies one-by-one, instead of sending pamphlets via mail, WhatsApp and WeChat. Some even find it difficult to select the common factor inside the demands of appointed members.

As a result, the latest electoral reform fosters the fiercest competition I have ever seen at the Hong Kong District Council level. Not only should all candidates abandon ideological confrontation, personal attacks and unreasonable abuses, but also have to clearly show determination, speak out ideas and list possible solutions to the unanswered questions in our society.

Ironically, the US-led alliance keeps criticizing our electoral system. Western politicians seldom take the time to understand our full practice. Voter turnout should not be the only standard to value our election system, not to mention high electoral participation habitually polluted by hostility and social conflicts.

As we know, the government will implement key performance indicators to monitor the District Council mechanism. Unlike Westerners who can punish politicians by votes in an election year, Hong Kong citizens can supervise their elected representatives for the whole period of time. Coca-Cola has different levels of sweetness across countries, and so does democracy.

To conclude, the electoral reform drives Hong Kong back to the originally designed road of One Country, Two Systems, together with our district councils. Councilors must be patriots, no one can utilize the consultation platform to organize events detrimental to national security. In light of this, please kindly cast your votes showing the confidence and determination of Hong Kong residents to make progress in our community development.