District Councillors Shouldn't Elect CE: Ip Kwok-him

A Hong Kong deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC) says Beijing will likely remove district councillors’ power to help choose the SAR's chief executive, so as to reduce the opposition camp’s political leverage.

Of the 1,200-strong election committee tasked to select the CE, 117 are district councillors.

They are elected among 452 district councillors – and more than 80 percent of them are currently from the pan-democratic camp after its sweeping victory in the elections of 2019.

Speaking before flying to Beijing to attend the NPC’s annual plenary session, Ip Kwok-him said he agreed that district councillors should not be empowered to pick the top leader.

“It’s likely the 117 seats for district councillors on the election committee will be cancelled. We see that members from the opposition camp won a lot of seats in the district council election. If they can get into the election committee, it will affect the CE election,” he said.

“How can people against the central government or even advocating Hong Kong independence become members of the election committee? It’s important that we ensure the CE is a patriot.”

He said he expected the matter to be added as an ad hoc item on the NPC session’s agenda.