Hong Kong’s new district councils will be more ‘constructive’, members to be monitored for performance, city leader John Lee says
- Chief Executive John Lee urges residents to focus on election outcome and defends voting rate as a ‘good turnout’, despite hitting record low
- Government in afternoon to announce names of 179 district councillors appointed by city leader, and 27 for ex officio seats, joining 88 directly elected in poll
Hong Kong’s new district councils will be more “constructive”, with a monitoring mechanism to gauge members’ performance, the city’s leader has said, while urging residents to focus on the recent poll’s outcome and defending its record low voting rate as a “good turnout”.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday morning also revealed that the government in the afternoon would announce the names of the 179 district councillors he had appointed, and those taking up the 27 ex officio seats.
“We had about 1.2 million voters coming out to vote,” Lee told reporters before a meeting with top advisers from the Executive Council. “I think that was a good turnout.
“We have already passed the election process, it is important we focus our attention on the outcome of the election, and the outcome will mean a constructive district council rather than what used to be a destructive one.”
Under the district council revamp, only 88 out of 470 seats are directly elected by the public. The city leader chooses 179 others, local committees decide another 176 and rural leaders will hold the remaining 27 seats.
