Pro-Beijing Figures Discuss How To Divvy Up Legco

Pro-Beijing figures in Hong Kong put forward various suggestions on Monday as to how many of Legco's lawmakers the public should get to choose in future, with one saying he hopes it can be limited to little more than a fifth of the members.

Mainland officials are holding a series of seminars to gauge "public opinion" on the electoral system overhaul that has been agreed in Beijing, with government officials, executive councillors and pro-establishment industry representatives among those invited.

Beijing has already announced that the number of seats in Legco will be expanded from 70 to 90, with the chief executive election committee to help vet Legco poll candidates and choose some lawmakers itself.

A Hong Kong delegate to the National People's Congress, Stanley Ng, said he thinks the election committee should pick 50 of the 90 legislators.

Ng said 20 seats should be retained by the special interest functional constituencies, leaving 20 for the public to vote on.

He said this arrangement would be good for the city's overall interests and would prevent the SAR from sliding towards extremism.

Executive councillor Ronny Tong, meanwhile, said he had proposed that the 90 seats be equally divided between candidates picked by the election committee, functional constituency voters, and the general public.

He said this could avoid giving people the impression that any of the three groups is more important than the others.

Tong also said it would be unfair to drop all of the 117 seats in the election committee currently reserved for district councillors.

But he thinks most of them could go, proposing that each of the 18 district councils elect two people to the committee – one from the majority camp in the council and another from the minority camp.

DAB chairwoman Starry Lee didn't have a suggestion of her own on splitting up the 90 seats, instead noting that Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office deputy Zhang Xiaoming had not told them what Beijing's plan for this is.

Despite the lack of details, Lee said the changes will help Hong Kong develop a "quality" democratic system that will help groom political talent.

“In the past, we’ve often said training for political and governing talents in Hong Kong has not been sufficient. I hope that after implementing 'patriots ruling Hong Kong', more talented patriots can enter different important bodies,” she said.