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Hong Kong Local Elections
November 24, 2019
The 2019 Hong Kong District Council elections are scheduled to be held on Sunday 24th November 2019 for the sixth District Councils of Hong Kong. Elections are to be held to all 18 District Councils with returning 452 members from all directly elected constituencies, out of the total 479 seats.
Boundary changes
In July 2017, the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) proposed to increase 21 elected seats in 10 District Councils after a review on the number of elected seats for each District Council having regard to the population forecast:
- 1 new seat for each Kowloon City, Yau Tsim Mong and Tsuen Wan District Councils;
- 2 new seats for each Sham Shui Po, Kwai Tsing, Tuen Mun and Sai Kung District Councils;
- 3 new seats for each Kwun Tong and Sha Tin District Councils; and
- 4 new seats for the Yuen Long District Council.
According to the recommendations, the total number of elected seats for the 2019 elections will be increased by 21 from 431 to 452.
Gerrymandering concerns
Some pro-democracy District Councillors accused the EAC of gerrymandering in which the borders of their constituencies were altered “unreasonably” which might affect their odds should they seek another term. EAC chairman Barnabas Fung claimed that the proposal was purely the result of an objective calculation. “Factors with political implications would definitely not be taken into consideration,” Fung said.
Project Storm
In April 2017, Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai proposed the “Project Storm” to win the majority of the District Council seats for the pro-democrats in the coming election. He stated that by winning a majority of the some 400 District Council seats, pro-democrats could gain an additional 117 seats of the District Council subsectors on the 1,200-member Election Committee which elects the Chief Executive. Tai believed that by making it harder for Beijing to manipulate in the Chief Executive election, it would compel Beijing to restart the stalled political reform after its restrictive proposal was voted down in 2015.
Sources and further reading:
Legislative Council Panel on Constitutional Affairs: Review of the Number of Elected Seats for the Sixth-Term District Councils
https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/english/panels/ca/papers/ca20170717cb2-1848-1-e.pdf
Election chiefs bring in 21 new Hong Kong district council seats, sparking gerrymandering concerns
