Reforms squeezing out pan-dems: Lo Kin-hei

The chairman of the Democratic Party, Lo Kin-hei, said on Monday that the political vetting that Beijing proposes under a sweeping overhaul of the SAR’s electoral system will deter him from joining future elections.

The central government’s plan to dramatically reform the territory’s electoral system, was unveiled this week during the country’s annual parliamentary session, is expected to upend the territory’s governance and ensure Beijing loyalists are in charge.

Beijing has said it intends to ensure that only “patriots” rule Hong Kong and subversion is stamped out.

Vice Premier Han Zheng has also been quoted as saying that Beijing’s electoral reforms for Hong Kong are no longer about whether the SAR’s systems are democratic or not, but about preventing subversion.

Lo told RTHK’s Hong Kong Today that every new measure proposed by Beijing made him less and less interested in campaigning in future polls, and the scope for pro-democracy candidates is becoming much smaller.

“I believe that the room for us to participate is much smaller,” Lo said, noting that there were more mechanisms to bar anyone from running, and the authorities were reducing the number of directly elected representatives.

But Lo warned that having more legislative councillors appointed instead of directly elected wouldn’t address the issue of the SAR government not listening to the people of Hong Kong.

He said popular frustration with the government for not paying attention was a factor in the social unrest of recent years.

“I believe that for the past twenty odd years the one very important issue that we had in Hong Kong is that the Hong Kong government is not listening to the Hong Kong people and that is one of the very important root [causes] of all the problems,” Lo said.