This is how the National
Democratic Institute (NDI) described the Designing Democracy in Hong Kong
project on their website on 29 January 2014:
Hong Kong citizens have never had the
opportunity to directly elect their city's chief executive.
While Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic
Law, calls for “universal suffrage” as its “ultimate aim,” the head of
government and numerous legislators have not been directly elected by citizens
for the last 16 years.
Instead, Hong Kong’s chief executives have been
chosen by special Election Committees with members elected from business and
professional sectors. And, currently, almost half of all Legislative Council
(LegCo) members have been elected through a similar system of “functional
constituencies” that represent professional associations and special interests.
But Hong Kong’s citizens may finally have the
opportunity for a more representative electoral system.
After decades of advocacy for electoral reform
by Hong Kong activists and pro-democracy politicians, China’s supreme
law-making body, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,
determined that Hong Kong may have universal suffrage for the 2017 chief
executive election.
An official five-month public consultation
process on electoral reform, which relies on town hall-style meetings and
official submissions to the government, began last month.
The
Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL) at the University of Hong Kong,
with support from NDI, is working to amplify citizens’ voices in that
consultation process by creating Design Democracy Hong Kong
(www.designdemocracy.hk), a unique and neutral website that gives citizens a
place to discuss the future of Hong Kong’s electoral system.
Since current policymakers who are not directly
elected have little motivation to consider public recommendations, Design
Democracy hopes to gauge and promote citizens’ preferences on different models
of universal suffrage.
Launched on Dec. 3, the Design Democracy
website is the first interactive, politically neutral place where citizens can
learn about the Hong Kong political system, engage with others in a debate
about electoral reform, and easily share their views on social media and
directly with the Hong Kong government.
The website, accessible in English and both
traditional and simplified Chinese, encourages public dialogue and
participation with the use of two tools. The first, called a “decision tree,”
helps users to better understand what “universal suffrage” means and to design
their own proposal for how it should work by walking them through the most
important questions facing Hong Kong in the reform process.
The decision tree, for example, asks: “Who
should have the power to nominate chief executive candidates?” As users respond
to these and other questions, they are encouraged to explain their answers.
Users can submit their proposals directly to the Hong Kong government from the
Design Democracy website.
In the first few weeks after the website’s
launch, more than 210 proposals were submitted and the Design Democracy
Facebook page (www.facebook.com/designdemocracyhk) generated more than 1,150
“likes.”
The website’s second tool is the “forum,” where
users can comment on a range of topics related to the election, such as whether
candidates should have to receive a certain share of the vote to win an
election outright. The Design Democracy team has also interviewed members of
the legislature, scholars, young activists, and even celebrities to get their
views on the prospects for reaching universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
Recordings of the interviews have been uploaded
to YouTube and embedded on the forum to allow users to view and discuss them.
The 25 videos posted so far have received more than 1,000 views.
Before the public consultation period ends in
May, CCPL will analyze the proposals and data from the website and submit
recommendations to the Hong Kong government. Later this year the government
will design a reform package in line with guidelines set by Beijing that must
be approved by two-thirds of the Legislative Council. Once the package is
passed by LegCo and signed off on by Beijing, the Hong Kong SAR government will
have to put in place the new institutions and procedures needed to carry out
the 2017 chief executive election1.
NDI webpage on Designing Democracy in Hong Kong
project
Reference
1NDI. Designing Democracy in Hong Kong project. Published
Jan. 29, 2014.
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