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7. The Election of the Hong Kong Deputies to the National People’s Congress
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
- Chapter
- Additional Information
The Election of the Hong Kong Deputies to the National People’s Congress 185 The second election of the Hong Kong deputies to the Tenth NPC of the PRC was held on December 3, 2002 — five years after the first election had been held for the Hong Kong members of the Ninth NPC in the HKSAR.1 The registration of contestants for the candidacy of Hong Kong deputies to the Tenth NPC was completed on November 18, 2002. There were 99 participants in the 15-day nomination period.2 Of the 99 participants, 78 formally submitted their registration forms, which required at least ten nominations in order to make each registration effective. A total of 36 deputies were elected on December 3, 2002 by a 953-member Conference for Electing Deputies of the HKSAR to the Tenth NPC of the PRC.3 The PRC Government appointed the Members of the Conference for Electing Deputies of the HKSAR without the involvement of the ordinary people of Hong Kong. The majority of the members of the Conference for Electing Deputies to the Tenth NPC came from the 800member Election Committee that selected the second chief executive of the HKSAR in March 2002.4 Under the electoral arrangement, 54 candidates were first elected from among the members of the Election Conference in November 2002 for the second or final round of voting on December 3. The Central Committee of the Democratic Party (DP) endorsed four members — James To Kunsun , Albert Ho Chun-yan, Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, and Sin Chungkai — to stand in the election. Mr. Cheung ran in his own capacity whereas the others represented the party.5 The DP Vice-Chairman Law Chi-kwong said the party should participate in the election because “Hong Kong people should have the right to stand for election of the NPC deputies.”6 Ho, a member of the Standing Committee of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic and Democratic Movement in China, remarked: “We are 7 The Election of the Hong Kong Deputies to the National People’s Congress 186 The Dynamics of Beijing–Hong Kong Relations a political party which got the community’s support in the direct election here. If not even a single member from our party can get elected, that will be a problem of the NPC electoral system.”7 Prior to the election, political observer Chris Yeung believed that its results would be “significant” because they “could reflect some interesting changes in the mindset of the local elite towards mainland–Hong Kong relations.”8 He predicted that “[w]ith the influence of a small, though vocal, group of pro-Beijing figures diluted in a larger panel, it is likely that most voters will put more weight on the qualities of the candidates rather than their political views.”9 As it turned out, however, Yeung’s prediction became inaccurate because candidates’ political orientations appeared to be the most important criterion shaping their chances of electoral success. This chapter aims at exploring the politics of selecting the Hong Kong members of the Tenth NPC, including the role of the Liaison Office in the election. The literature on elections in the HKSAR has focused on the Legislative Council and District Councils,10 but little research has been conducted on the NPC elections except for Pepper’s recent work. The study of the elections held for the Hong Kong members of the NPC, as this chapter will show, can demonstrate the uniqueness of mainland-style Chinese election in the politically pluralistic setting of the HKSAR.11 Finally, the implications of the HKSAR NPC elections for Taiwan will be examined. The First Round of Voting The first round of voting was held on November 30, 2003 (see Table 7.1). Only 874 members of the 953-strong election panel turned up, but 870 cast their votes and 868 votes were valid.12 All five of the democrats were defeated in the first round of voting amid unsubstantiated claims that some voters were under pressure not to support them. Democrats Albert Ho Chunyan (64 votes), James To Kun-sun (81 votes), Sin Chung-kai (74 votes), Anthony Cheung (113 votes), and Frederick Fung Kin-kee (110 votes) were all defeated. Cheung, Fung, To, Sin, and Ho ranked at 57th, 58th, 61st, 65th, and 67th among the seventy-eight candidates respectively. Anthony Cheung said he was not surprised at the result given the fact that “some people are putting pressure on the voters not...