The importance of exercising your right to vote in the District Council Election
Articles 45 and 68 of the Basic Law respectively set out the methods of appointing the Chief Executive and electing the Legislative Council members.
In addition, although the powers of a District Council member may seem to be limited, he/she has other important powers outside of the District Council, including:
1. Eligible to be a Legislative Council member (6 seats out of 70):
(a) Legislative Council “District Council (first) functional constituency”: 1 seat
All District Council members (say, for the year between 2015-2019, 458 members in total) would become members of the Legislative Council “District Council (first) functional constituency” and could select 1 person among them all to be a Legislative Council member.
(b) Legislative Council “District Council (second) functional constituency”: 5 seats
All elected District Council members (not including the 27 ex-officio members, say, for the year between 2015-2019, 431 members in total) could stand for election to become Legislative Council members. All HK registered voters who do not have a vote for the other functional constituencies’ seats could elect 5 persons to be Legislative Council members by a “one person, one vote” method.
Therefore, being a District Council member, he/she may also have the opportunity to become a Legislative Council member.
2. Eligible to be a member of the CE’s nominating committee (117 out of 1200 seats)
The CE’s nominating committee is divided into 4 sectors. In the fourth sector, the “HK Island and Kowloon District Council members” have 57 seats and the “NT District Council members” have 60 seats. That means out of the 1200 seats of the nominating committee, 117 are from the District Council, almost one- tenth of the members of the nominating committee. Therefore, District Council members also have certain influence over the CE election.
If you have any doubt or suspicion during the election process, please consult the staff member of your polling station.
