{"id":1127029,"date":"2023-07-10T18:22:27","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T18:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/china\/hongkong-elections-07102023141435.html"},"modified":"2023-07-10T18:22:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T18:22:27","slug":"hong-kong-politicians-in-exile-call-for-international-response-to-electoral-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/10\/hong-kong-politicians-in-exile-call-for-international-response-to-electoral-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong politicians in exile call for international response to electoral changes"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hong Kong’s “last elected district councilors” have called on the international community to withdraw recognition for the city’s legislature after it voted to slash the number of directly elected district council seats.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The city’s legislature \u2013 which has been packed with pro-Beijing members since changes to the electoral system that saw chief executive John Lee “<\/span>win<\/span><\/a>” an election in which he was the <\/span>only candidate<\/span><\/a> \u2013 voted unanimously last week to <\/span>slash<\/span><\/a> the number of directly elected seats on District Council from 452 to just 88.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n The move comes amid an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and political opposition in Hong Kong, and after millions of voters in Hong Kong delivered a <\/span>stunning rebuke<\/span><\/a> to Beijing and their own government with a landslide victory for pro-democracy candidates across the city’s 18 district councils at the height of the 2019 protest movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lee welcomed the changes to the District Council election rules, which will also ensure that pro-democracy candidates won’t be able to run in the next election.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n “We must … completely exclude those anti-China and destabilizing forces from the District Councils,” Lee said in a July 8 statement. “This legislative exercise [will] ensure that the District Councils are firmly in the hands of patriots.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Lee said the government is looking for candidates who are “capable, experienced, with relevant skill sets suited to the needs of the districts, and patriotic,” although the government has yet to set a date for the district election.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Under the new rules, which took effect on Monday, candidates will have to pass a national security background check and secure at least three nominations from several committees loyal to the ruling Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n More than 20 former District Council members in exile have called on the international community to withdraw official recognition of Hong Kong’s Legislative and District Councils, which no longer “legally represent the people of Hong Kong.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Elections for show<\/strong><\/p>\n The joint letter authored by former Shek Tong Tsui district councilor Sam Yip, who fled the ongoing crackdown to live in Japan, said that the latest legislation has sounded the death knell for any kind of democracy in Hong Kong.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n “Under the framework of the Hong Kong government’s so-called ‘patriots governing Hong Kong’ policy, candidates must show their loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party before they can run for election,” Yip said. “[They have to] go to these pro-government people to get nominated.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Former Legislative Council member and former District Council member Ted Hui, who is among eight prominent overseas activists <\/span>wanted<\/span><\/a> by national security police for “collusion with foreign forces,” said he, Yip and the other signatories to the letter were “the last democratically elected district councilors.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n “Maybe we would never get through the government’s review process … but the public opinion we represented still exists,” Hui said. “We may scatter all over the world, but we still want to serve the people of Hong Kong.”<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n