New Screening Body 'to Ensure NSL Compliance'

Pro-establishment heavyweight Tam Yiu-chung said on Friday that a new screening committee to review and confirm the qualifications of candidates for the Election Committee, the chief executive and the Legco polls – as part of Beijing-led electoral reform in Hong Kong – should ensure they comply with the national security law and the Basic Law at all times.

Hong Kong's only delegate on the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) explained that the new committee would scrutinise past comments and behaviour of the candidates to determine if they are trustworthy.

Speaking on an RTHK radio programme, Tam added that it should be in the form of a statutory body.

He also believes the NPCSC will lay down more concrete details on the overhaul of the SAR's electoral system to help facilitate the necessary legal changes here.

"The more concrete the details, the easier it will be for the SAR government, otherwise it would take longer," he said.

Tam said there's no timetable yet, but the NPCSC will soon meet again, so the SAR government will be in a bit of a rush to amend local laws.

"So I heard Chief Executive Carrie Lam saying that maybe more than 20 local laws have to be amended. We all know there's a bit of a process for the Hong Kong legislature, this takes time," he said.

After the country's parliament endorsed the changes on Thursday, the NPCSC is now tasked with amending two annexes to the Basic Law regarding the Chief Executive and Legco elections.

On how many Legco members the 1,500-strong Election Committee will be able to select in future, Tam said comments by the vice-chairman of the NPC, Wang Chen, that the committee should name a "relatively large share" of lawmakers should be noted.

Another pro-establishment figure, Lau Siu-kai, believes the Election Committee should choose 30 lawmakers, the same as the number of directly-elected and functional constituency seats in the future 90-member Legco.

The vice-president of Beijing's top think-tank on Hong Kong said if there are too few directly-elected seats, political parties would have little room to survive and a tough time grooming talent.

"For patriots ruling Hong Kong, the patriotic camp needs support from the masses, they need to work in the community to win over people's support for the camp and the SAR government," he told the same RTHK programme.

On the screening committee vetting candidates, Lau believes it will comprise of government officials as well as highly-respected members of the community.