The Hong Kong government’s election reform proposal would, in theory, allow for greater flexibility and competition for the 2017 race for Chief Executive. However, with pan-democratic lawmakers vowing to veto the proposal, what are the chances of the ‘one person one vote’ elections happening?

On 22 April 2015, the Hong Kong government put before the Legislative Council its proposal for selecting the Chief Executive by universal suffrage. The government appealed to the legislature, particularly to the pan-democrats, to vote for the new election initiative which would allow over five million Hong Kongers to vote for their leader, under universal suffrage for the first time in 2017.

The electoral reform package requires a two-thirds majority approval – 47 out of 70 members – from the legislature to pass. However, pro-democracy legislators, who control 27 seats, have vowed to veto the package, threatening the proposal and ultimately the 2017 ‘one person one vote’ election. That said, the government only needs to persuade four pro-democrat lawmakers to switch sides to successfully pass the election package.

… Dylan Loh Ming Hui is a research analyst at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University.