Hong Kong elections reform: two building extensions planned as city legislature grows under Beijing’s overhaul

Legislative Council plans involve adding four floors to existing building and a new 10-storey structure connecting to the main block

But no estimated costs of the project have been published so far, while completion will be 2025 at the earliest

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Plans for extending the Legco complex were revealed on Monday. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 5:24pm, 10 May 2021Updated: 2:06pm, 8 Sep 2021

The Legislative Council is planning two building extensions to accommodate 20 extra lawmakers under Beijing’s overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system, with temporary offices for members rented elsewhere in the city during construction works potentially lasting more than three years.

To accelerate the project and keep costs down, the new offices in the Admiralty complex are expected to be built using prefabricated modular units, made off-site and brought to the legislature for assembly. But details of the costs were not made available to legislators when they were briefed on the plan.

Officials from the Architectural Services Department unveiled the plans in two closed-door meetings of the Legislative Council Commission on Monday, some two months after Beijing approved the drastic shake-up of elections in Hong Kong.

Under those reforms, the legislature’s membership will expand from 70 to 90, with 40 lawmakers returned by a newly empowered Election Committee, which was previously responsible only for selecting the city’s leader.

The number of directly elected lawmakers in the next Legco will be reduced sharply from 35 to 20.

Beijing and Hong Kong officials insisted the revamp was necessary to avoid a repeat of the 2019 social unrest. But opposition activists and Western politicians said it was aimed at wiping out dissident voices.

In February, 47 opposition activists were charged with subversion over an unofficial primary election last summer. One of them, ex-lawmaker Andrew Wan Siu-kin, became the latest to resign as a district councilor on Monday.

Hong Kong elections reform: two building extensions planned as city legislature grows under Beijing’s overhaul

Legislative Council plans involve adding four floors to existing building and a new 10-storey structure connecting to the main block But no estimated costs of the project have been published so far, while completion will be 2025 at the earliest

Legislative Council plans involve adding four floors to existing building and a new 10-storey structure connecting to the main block

But no estimated costs of the project have been published so far, while completion will be 2025 at the earliest