Opinion | In the new and improved Legislative Council, Election Committee members’ politics will be crucial

After an election that saw the absence of the traditional opposition and an infusion of new faces, all eyes should be on the 40 lawmakers elected under the Election Committee constituency

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A man walks through posters promoting Legislative Council polls in Admiralty on November 23. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 6:45am, 20 Dec 2021

For better or worse, the Legislative Council election has concluded. Now it is time to see what this new and improved system looks like.

At first glance, it is first and foremost a system of new faces, of political novices, but will they be an improvement? Of course, it’s too early to tell at this point. New is good, I suppose, marking a fresh start and a clean slate.

The absence of the traditional opposition has created a lot of opportunities in terms of seats needing to be filled, resulting in the infusion of new blood into the political system. If not exactly a changing of the guard, we saw those who have risen through the ranks step into the limelight.

In the geographical constituencies, gone is the system of lists, where we used to see teams of up to nine people per list. Those who would otherwise have had to wait their turn to move to the top of such lists at least had the opportunity to run. That change in the system no doubt disrupted the ways in which political parties handled their internal politics.

The reduction in geographical constituency seats also threw traditional political parties off course, and therefore we saw some old faces and incumbents changing tack to the Election Committee constituency, where political clout counts. But, all in all, this election has mainly been a contest of fresh faces.

Are we now stuck with a legislature of amateurs? That was actually the case in 2016, when many political heavyweights stepped down to make way for newcomers. That term began with the theatrics of oath takers, which resulted in the disqualification of six members. Thereafter, all went south.