Edward Chan from Financier Conscience (from left), former Chief Secretary and convenor of Hong Kong 2020 Anson Chan, Kelvin Lee from Insurance Arise and Felix Fung from Act Voice. Photo: RTHK
Three pro-democracy professional groups are demanding their sectors' representatives in the legislature be returned by human voters rather than corporate entities.
Under the existing arrangements, lawmakers representing the Finance, Financial Services, and Insurance functional constituencies are elected by around 900 companies.
The groups say these are unfair “small-circle” election that fails to represent the interests of those working in the sectors. They say their proposals is to elect lawmakers from these sectors by some 150,000 individual voters.
While the government had ruled out reforms to Legco's electoral methods because its political reform package was vetoed last year, the groups think their proposals are easily achievable.
Felix Fung, a member of the group Act Voice, formed by pro-democracy actuaries, said their proposals are practicable and fall under the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong government.
“We are not asking for something impossible, it’s only a very small step for the government,” he said. “I think it’s the government’s role to make this happen.”
They say all the government needs to do is get a list of registered or licensed workers from relevant regulators, such as the Monetary Authority or the Securities and Futures Commission, and see if they are eligible voters.
The groups will table their proposals to the government at a Legco Bills Committee public hearing next week. They say they ultimately want all functional constituencies will be abolished, and hope their proposals will encourage other sectors to come up with ideas on how to make elections for their functional constituency lawmakers more democratic.
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1236851-20160119.htm
