Coming Sunday: election farce to elect electors for March election farce

Where in the world do non-humans officially referred to as ‘bodies’ have votes via ‘authorized representatives’, who must be human? Stupid question, of course. As to how a ‘body’ with its ‘authorized representative’ comes to be – well, someone has gone to great lengths to make it laboriously complex.

Sunday will see the exciting 2011 Election Committee Subsector Elections. The 250,000 or so voters for functional constituency seats in the Legislative Council (some humans taking part have multiple votes, so the number of people is a bit lower) will elect the 1,200-strong Election Committee, which will pretend next March to elect the next Chief Executive.

Today’s South China Morning Post reports that the system contains a loophole: some of the non-human ‘bodies’ are foreign. This is not because nasty overseas organizations are trying to infiltrate plucky little Hong Kong’s political process; the trade offices and chambers of commerce get votes because they are members of umbrella business groups. The fact is that many of the functional constituencies’ voters are in some ways self-selected. You could probably wangle a vote by starting a chamber of commerce or obtaining individual membership of a professional group in a sector where the voters are human and of a distinctly common-or-garden type, like teachers or IT. Needless to say, the voting clout of the less exclusive constituencies/subsectors is diluted in the overall scheme of things. The whole thing, remember, is a charade: the outcome of the ‘election’ for Chief Executive in March will already have been decided in Beijing. The SCMP’s editorial cartoon by Harry speaks a thousand words…

 

A full list of subsectors and candidates on Sunday is here. To show what an inclusive exercise this is, you can access information on the candidates in Hindi, Thai or Tagalog.

A well-meaning soul (or ‘body’, I suppose) in Commercial (First) asks how someone with an understandable and indeed healthy disdain for the Liberal Party’s James Tien should cast their vote. Fortunately, of the 21 candidates, three have banded together behind the unique proposition – the total antithesis of this whole Communist/Corporatist ‘sector’ sham – that Hong Kong should be run for the benefit of all of its people, not for particular business and other interest groups. They are George Cautherley, Marcus Shaw and Stephen Wong.

The Medical subsector has an amazing 83 candidates jumping up and down and waving their stethoscopes to attract attention. I can recommend Kwok ka-ki, one of those legislators who was too good to stay in Legco.

Why – if you are one of the 250,000 – go to the polling station on Sunday morning? The Three Musketeers Cautherley, Shaw and Wong in Commercial (First) claim in their brochure that ‘Your vote counts’. ‘Your vote can make James Tien’s percentage of the poll smaller than it would otherwise be’, perhaps. And there is always the possibility that if enough pro-democrats get onto the Election Committee they can nominate one of their own as a mock-candidate for Hong Kong’s top post, who could at least mutilate the presumed winner-to-be Henry Tang in a TV debate for all our amusement.  Think of it as a good deed for the community.

Click to hear ‘Sunday Morning’ by the Five Day Week Straw People!

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9 Responses to Coming Sunday: election farce to elect electors for March election farce

  1. PropertyDeveloper says:

    Foreign bodies infiltrated in the otherwise pure and great Han nation? HSBC handling the dearest currency in the world? It’s the end of the world as we know it — soon they’ll be allowing coffee-drinking, pet-loving doctors to touch our bodies.

  2. Joe Blow says:

    Guess who is No. 5 on the Hong Kong and Kowloon District Councils-list ? (no peeking !)

  3. Real Tax Payer says:

    And to think that I pay good tax money for this charade !

    BTW : has anyone else noticed that ‘Enery the ‘orse has shed his tie? Is this a PR gaq to move close to the people or to distance himself from Sir Bow-Tie ? ……. or both?

    Now every time I see his awful grinning face ( is that grin a mask or did he have a face-job ?) I keep humming the old George Formby song ( somewhat adapted):

    I’m ‘Enery the ‘Orse I am
    “Enery the “Orse I am I am
    I got married to the girl next door
    Since when I’ve had a few girls more

    And every girl loved ‘Enery
    ‘Cos I’m such a very nice play-boy man
    Nothing like as bad as Joseph Lau
    ‘Enery the STUD I am !

    ( The second stanza needs some more work… any suggestions?)

  4. maugrim says:

    I’ve got a vote (for what its worth). Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! You mean there are foreign paws at work in our ‘election’? That ‘panda in the room’ should be under the heading of ‘the bleeding obvious’.

    Joe, I peeked, couldn’t resist. Is there no part of HK where the Bunster’s tentacles dont reach? Lol.

  5. Believer says:

    It must be an election, the US Consul General said so.

  6. mumphLT says:

    The other thing with Horse Face is he’s so bleedin’ inarticulate in front of the camera’s. If it is a charade so be it but FFS can’t they find someone who can even bullshit believably & with some authority. I know they want a grinning idiot but one that can talk properly at least please.

  7. isomoliu says:

    My vote will be a protest vote. Those voting for the pro-China or allegedly independent candidates are in effect gifting the likes of Bunny another opportunity to milk the system for self-gain, adding onto their epitome-of-taste accordian-fold business cards.

    My mailbox this week has been jammed full every day with election advertisements, which alone illustrates the absurdity of this travesty. I will need a bigger mailbox for the next round.

  8. Real Tax Payer says:

    I see that thursday’s SCMP carries another opinion poll which shows CY still way WAY ahead of the horse. Given that the common person does not know much about CY and what he stands for ( if anything) but they do know henery and what he stands for and they hate both what he stands for and the man himself, I think that says a lot

    The more big wigs who throw their hat in with henery the worse it gets. All fat rich pigs feeding in the same trough at the common man’s expense.

    Animal farm all over again “One man one vote good, one rich man one vote/one common man NO vote better ”

    I was disgusted than Anthony leung ,for whom I ( did ) have a lot of respect has thrown his lot in with the horse. Hope he gets covered in horse sh1t

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