Senior officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, led by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu (center), attend a news conference on the proposal to improve district administration at the Government Headquarters on Tuesday. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
The government’s plan to reform the city’s district councils will go to the city’s Legislative Council for a first and second reading on Wednesday, in a bid to form a new term of district councils that could begin to serve the public next year.
The District Councils (Amendment) Bill 2023, which would amend six primary articles of legislation and 15 subsidiary articles of legislation, was gazetted on Tuesday.
The reform proposals have also received support from over 1.61 million Hong Kong residents by Monday, according to an alliance in a citywide 24-day signature campaign to canvass support from local residents
The bill is part of the government’s overall plan to improve district governance after the city’s district councils were found to have deviated from their original advisory role as spelled out in the Basic Law. Previous district councilors were found to have engaged in anti-government or national-security-endangering activities, even advocating separatism. Only one-third of the current-term district councils’ members are incumbents, after many either resigned or were disqualified, according to the government.
READ MORE: HK announces detailed plan to reform district councils
In a statement, a government spokesman said, “Reforming DCs is an integral part of improving district governance. By restoring DCs to their positioning under the Basic Law, the principle of ‘patriots administering Hong Kong’ will be fully implemented institutionally.”
The new district councils that would be formed after the reform would get back on track and perform their advisory roles and cooperate with the government to implement district work, the spokesman said.
According to the government’s reform plan, announced on May 2, the district councils would have a total 470 seats, to be filled by members appointed by the government and members selected through direct and indirect elections, at a ratio of about 4-4-2 respectively. In addition, district councils would have another 27 ex officio members from the New Territories’ rural committees. In other words, 88 members would be returned by geographic polls. Another 176 seats would be filled by members of district committees, which cover Area Committees, District Crime Fighting Committees and District Fire Safety Committees.
The Candidate Eligibility Review Committee, led by Chief Secretary for Administration Eric Chan Kwok-ki, would also be tasked with vetting the candidates for district councilors. The district officers, the heads of each district office, would also chair the 18 district councils to enhance the executive-led district administration.
According to papers submitted to the legislature, the government proposed to cap the election expenditures for geographic polls of District Councils from HK$512,400 ($65,450) to HK$951,600, with expenditures for district committee constituency capped at HK$100,000.
The papers also showed that the proposals have received overwhelming support — 99 percent — in the 25,000 feedback responses in public consultation through a designated website. In addition, the government held 22 sessions to explain the proposals to the public, with the majority of the attendees expressing support for the plan.
The reform proposals have also received support from over 1.61 million Hong Kong residents by Monday, according to an alliance in a citywide 24-day signature campaign to canvass support from local residents.
READ MORE: Coalition formed to promote HK district councils' reform plans
The spokesman said the proposals strictly adhere to the three guiding principles for improving district governance; namely, according top priority to national security and fully implementing the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”, and fully enhancing executive-led governance.
The bill will touch on nine key matters, including the appointment procedures of appointed district council members and scenarios in which district council members are disqualified, and the performance-monitoring mechanism for district council members, as well as the election methods of district council members to be returned by election and the electoral arrangements.
The government aims to pass the bill quickly in order to kick-start the election to form the new district councils to serve the public beginning Jan 1.