Hong Kong to begin nomination period for legislative election on October 24
Nomination window will run for two weeks for December 7 poll, which will be second held under Beijing’s ‘patriots-only’ electoral reform
Gazetting the electoral arrangement on Friday, the Registration and Electoral Office said the nomination period would run until November 6 and called on hopefuls to submit their forms as early as possible in case any errors need to be corrected.
The poll on December 7 will be the second Legco election since Beijing overhauled the electoral system in 2021 to ensure only “patriots” can hold political power in the city.
The revamp followed the social unrest in 2019, when the opposition camp won a landslide victory in the district council election at the height of the protests.
Under the new system, the legislature has been expanded to 90 members, with only 20 directly elected from geographical constituencies. Another 30 are returned from trade-based functional constituencies, while 40 are chosen by the powerful Election Committee, which is dominated by Beijing loyalists.
Candidates for the geographical constituencies are required to secure endorsements from 100 to 200 registered electors within their constituency and nominations from at least 10 Election Committee members. These nominators must include two to four members from each of the committee’s five sectors.