Improved election system

Who would have thought it? Transit Jam is having problems finding nominations to be a candidate for the District Council election. Several possible nominators are actually running for election themselves, so wouldn’t sponsor a potential rival (and, as he points out, shouldn’t be among the limited pool of people able to nominate). Others don’t answer multiple emails/calls/messages – despite requests to do so from the government’s own District Office…

…six Kowloon City candidates submitted their candidacy nominations to the government on the first day of the nomination period yesterday: ALL SIX are on the Kowloon City nomination committees.

I’m not really sure on the ethics of having a nominating committee that can also stand in the election: shouldn’t we at least bring in alternates, given the loss of nominators?

And those six represent a third of the “easier to find” nominators, as they had public information on record from their 2019 rout or existing DC post. 

A look through the nominations so far on the government site shows that most choices will be DAB/FTU, with a smattering of Liberals and apparently non-affiliated. James Ockenden is perhaps presenting the people managing the process with a quandary (more so than the Democratic Party hopefuls, whose group has obvious links with individuals and activities that have fallen foul of the NatSec Law). If he can’t get the necessary signatures just to get on the ballot – for what is now a small number of popularly elected seats – what will that say about the elaborate and much-vaunted ‘improved’ elections? Will the authorities want to implicitly concede that the all-patriots system is designed to exclude everyone other than select (or maybe pre-selected) candidates with establishment ties?

This is as close to interesting as the District Council elections are likely to get, so enjoy it while it lasts.