Hong Kong lawmakers amended a law on Thursday to delete the majority of directly elected seats on local district councils, the last major political representative organisations chosen by the public.
The adjustments include reducing the amount of directly elected seats in municipal-level organizations from around 90% to around 20% – even lower than when similar entities were first established in the 1980s, when Hong Kong was ruled by Britain.
The rest of the 470 seats will be filled by members appointed by the chief executive, rural committee chairpersons and others elected by local committees that are packed with pro-establishment figures.
A committee will assess all new councilors to ensure that “patriots” are in charge of Hong Kong. For “sanctioning misconduct” of councilors, a performance monitoring method will be implemented.
The voting reform underscores Beijing’s growing grip over Hong Kong in the aftermath of months of large pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Analysts predicted that the latest modifications would further marginalize citizen participation in city operations, predicting that the government would lose popular support.
