The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR**) yesterday (12th) announced the list of 179 appointed District Council members and 27 ex-officio members, so far, all the members of the new District Council have been elected, and will take office on January 1 next year, opening a new page for district governance. All sectors of society have high expectations for the new District Councils, hoping that they can play a good role as district advisors, widely contact community residents, be good at solving problems for community development and community residents, and have the courage to help solve the livelihood problems that have plagued the society for a long time. The new-term District Councils should respond to the expectations of the community with their outstanding performance.
After electing 176 District Council constituency members and 88 geographical constituency members for the new term of District Council members on the 10th of this month,** the names of 179 appointed members and 27 elected members were announced yesterday, bringing the total number of 470 District Council members in the new term to 470.
*The spokesman said that the appointment of DC members is based on the principle of meritocracy, and the appointment is made in accordance with the conditions and development needs of each district, taking into account factors such as community representativeness and ties with the district. The majority of appointees were young and middle-aged, with a median age of 47, 81 per cent aged between 40 and 64, 15 per cent under the age of 40, and the youngest aged 23.
The new District Councils are composed of appointed members and members returned by the District Committee constituency and the geographical constituencies respectively, which is more reasonable than being elected by all districts. All of them are elected by the region, and no matter how high the voter turnout rate is or how high the vote rate of the elected person is, it is impossible to represent all the residents, and it is easy to produce problems such as pan-politicization, populism, and fragmentation, which have far-reaching impacts. On the contrary, the change to a three-part composition of ** appointments, district committee constituency elections and geographical constituency elections can better achieve the goal of balanced participation and fully reflect the public opinion of the community, and at the same time attach importance to consultative democracy and electoral democracy, which is more conducive to district governance.
This year's election results are a case in point, where young people who are just starting out, those who do not have a large political party to rely on, and representatives of ethnic minorities who are not represented in the elections of the fledgling constituencies have a hard time winning the election with a large number of votes, but this does not mean that this part of the population is not important. Through the appointment system, some people who are of great value to the development of the district and even the whole territory can be appointed as District Council members, so that the composition of the District Council is more reasonable, and it has a non-negligible role in grasping the district situation and public opinion and promoting the implementation of district policies.
On the whole, the new District Councils appointed and elected have fully demonstrated their colourful characteristics, with members from various professional sectors, including principals, teachers, lawyers, medical, social workers, engineering surveying, accounting, insurance and financial services, as well as ethnic minorities.
The new District Council will be sworn in on New Year's Day next year, and the community is full of expectations for the new District Council, hoping that the new District Council will open a new chapter for the district governance of the new HKSAR**. This requires all district councilors, no matter which channel or method they take, to contact the community residents more extensively, to have a deeper understanding of the district conditions and public opinions, to more accurately grasp the pulse of regional development, to serve as a good adviser to the SAR in regional governance, to assist the SAR in formulating policies and measures that are more in line with the needs of regional development and community public opinion, and to continuously improve the happiness and sense of gain of community residents.
The Chief Executive announced yesterday that he would organise a district governance training course for the District Councillor-elect, delivered by the Secretary for the Youth Affairs Bureau, and that in the next three weeks, 18** District Commissioners will arrange training and hold preparatory meetings with the District Councillor-elect, so that they can start their work as soon as possible after taking office.
It is hoped that the new District Council members will quickly show a refreshing new atmosphere with hard work and enthusiasm, and strive for greater recognition and support from the public with practical work results, so as to make greater contributions to Hong Kong's social stability, improvement of people's livelihood and economic development.