'Public Easily Tricked Into Voting For Wrong People'

Former National People's Congress Standing Committee member and Legislative Council president Rita Fan on Thursday said she fears the Hong Kong public can easily be misled into choosing the wrong people to sit on district councils and around 20 percent of seats could be directly elected in future.

Fan told Ming Pao that the councils need a "start over" and a fifth of members returned via direct elections would be the similar ratio as in Legco.

She said the results of polls in the past show they don't necessarily return good candidates and she's "very scared" that the public can be misled into voting for "unqualified" representatives.

Meanwhile, a veteran member of the DAB, Lo Man-tuen, wrote in an editorial in Ming Pao that according to the Basic Law, district councils are not organs of political power, so there are no democratic rights when it comes to the councils.

He also said even if a voting element is to be included after a government review, the number of directly elected councillors should not be too high.

Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday that the government is close to finishing a review of district administration and council seats will be filled in a number of ways.

The last district council elections in 2019 saw a massive landslide for the pro-democracy camp. The majority of seats across the territory have been empty for many months, however, following mass resignations and disqualifications.