Chief Executive of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam Tuesday said that the HKSAR government expects to hold Legislative Council (LegCo) elections in December - more than a year after they were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lam was speaking at a presser after amendments to Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law of HKSAR were adopted by China's top legislature earlier in the day.
The two annexes concern the method for the selection of the HKSAR Chief Executive and the method for the formation of the HKSAR Legislative Council and its voting procedures, respectively.
According to Lam, the sixth-term LegCo will continue to operate till the end of the year.
LegCo President Andrew Leung earlier also voiced support for the top legislature's decision, saying the new electoral arrangements are in line with Hong Kong's "actual situation" and are a manifestation of the principle of "balanced participation."
He believes the legislative and the executive branches will be able to better monitor and cooperate with each other in the future, enabling the government and society to focus on tackling pressing economic and livelihood issues.
A tight schedule
In an earlier Tuesday statement, Lam said that she and the HKSAR government will spare no effort in taking forward the necessary amendments to the local electoral legislation in accordance with the amended Annex I and Annex II.
She told reporters that the schedule is very tight, as the government is striving to submit the amendment bill to the LegCo for scrutiny in the middle of April, involving amendments to more than 20 pieces of primary legislation and subsidiary legislation. "It is a very heavy workload."
The chief executive expects to complete the scrutiny and passage of the third reading by the end of May, and to start voter registration in June.
The target is to hold the Election Committee (EC) Subsector Elections in September, the Legislative Council General Election in December, and the Chief Executive Election in March next year, Lam added.
She also said in the statement that the government will extensively explain the matters to the public such that more and more people will recognize the necessity and urgency of such improvements to the electoral system and render their support.
To hammer out the work agenda, Lam met with the LegCo president on Tuesday.
The LegCo has set up a subcommittee on improving the electoral system that can turn into a bills committee after the first reading of the draft legislation, Leung said in a statement, adding that additional meetings will be arranged from mid-April so that the deliberation work will be able to advance at full speed.
After the amendment, LegCo will be expanded from the current 70 members to 90, with 40 of those seats to be returned by the Election Committee, 30 reserved for functional constituency candidates, and 20 for the general public to vote on.