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CHINESE DEMOCRACY (HK VERSION)
Sep. 8th, 2012 12:33 amThere’s an election on. And I’ll be casting my vote for the first time ever this Sunday.
Hmmmmm? Oh, I’m not talking about the US election. I’m talking about the Hong Kong election.
No, not that one. That was for the Chief Executive (which I couldn’t vote in even if I wanted to on account of Beijing doesn’t think I’m ready for that responsibility yet).
This one is for LegCo (Legislative Council – our version of Parliament, basically), where everyone gets to vote. We’ll be voting for two seats: one for the Geographical Constituency (New Territories West, in my case), and one for the newly created District Council (Second) Functional Constituency seats (the so-called “super seats”, which is a great name – it sounds like those premium economy seats on planes where you pay an extra $79 for legroom or something).
Confused? Me too. You can read the details here and here if you feel so inclined.
Anyway, this will be my first HK election as a registered voter. I’ve been eligible to vote since 2004 (which is when I got my permanent ID card), but never saw the point, seeing as how we could only vote for around half of the govt. I probably wouldn’t have bothered this time either, but the govt went out of their way to get people registered for this one (because of the new seats, I imagine), and my family and I just happened to walk past a registration table by the train station and we figured, “What the hey?”
And that’s why my mailbox has become stuffed with campaign literature from all the candidates.
There’s a lot of them – 16 for the Geographical Constituency, and seven for the super-seats. And confusingly, in some cases one “candidate” is actually a group of up to seven people, which I think means candidates are allowed to bring a posse to have their back.
Who will I vote for? I’m not sure yet. Most of their campaign lit is in Chinese, and all the TV debates have been conducted in Cantonese (although considering the debates have mainly involved a lot of shouting, pointing and stage props, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything of substance – and my Cantonese-literate bride assures me that I’m not).
Anyway, it’s bloggable, and that’s all that matters.
Expect follow-up posts. Possibly.
Choose or lose,
This is dF
Hmmmmm? Oh, I’m not talking about the US election. I’m talking about the Hong Kong election.
No, not that one. That was for the Chief Executive (which I couldn’t vote in even if I wanted to on account of Beijing doesn’t think I’m ready for that responsibility yet).
This one is for LegCo (Legislative Council – our version of Parliament, basically), where everyone gets to vote. We’ll be voting for two seats: one for the Geographical Constituency (New Territories West, in my case), and one for the newly created District Council (Second) Functional Constituency seats (the so-called “super seats”, which is a great name – it sounds like those premium economy seats on planes where you pay an extra $79 for legroom or something).
Confused? Me too. You can read the details here and here if you feel so inclined.
Anyway, this will be my first HK election as a registered voter. I’ve been eligible to vote since 2004 (which is when I got my permanent ID card), but never saw the point, seeing as how we could only vote for around half of the govt. I probably wouldn’t have bothered this time either, but the govt went out of their way to get people registered for this one (because of the new seats, I imagine), and my family and I just happened to walk past a registration table by the train station and we figured, “What the hey?”
And that’s why my mailbox has become stuffed with campaign literature from all the candidates.
There’s a lot of them – 16 for the Geographical Constituency, and seven for the super-seats. And confusingly, in some cases one “candidate” is actually a group of up to seven people, which I think means candidates are allowed to bring a posse to have their back.
Who will I vote for? I’m not sure yet. Most of their campaign lit is in Chinese, and all the TV debates have been conducted in Cantonese (although considering the debates have mainly involved a lot of shouting, pointing and stage props, I don’t feel like I’m missing anything of substance – and my Cantonese-literate bride assures me that I’m not).
Anyway, it’s bloggable, and that’s all that matters.
Expect follow-up posts. Possibly.
Choose or lose,
This is dF
