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South China Morning Post

Hong Kong to hold next Legislative Council election on December 7

Hong Kong will hold its second Legislative Council election under the revamped 'patriots-only' electoral overhaul, on December 7, according to the city's leader. Advertisement Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday also said that he had instructed the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau to create comprehensive deployment and emergency plans to ensure the elections are held smoothly. '[The bureau] was asked to work closely with the Electoral Affairs Commission to do proper planning and come up contingency plans on areas such as publicity, recruitment and training of electoral staff, arrangement of voting and ballot counting, data system and security,' Lee said ahead of his meeting with the government's key decision-making Executive Council. He expressed hope that the eighth term of the Legco election, held every four years, would be conducted in a fair, just and honest manner. He also hoped the election would pick out 90 lawmakers who 'love the country, love Hong Kong, have the ability and commitment' to serve the public. Advertisement Under the Beijing-decreed electoral shake-up to ensure only 'patriots' hold political power, the legislature was expanded from 70 to 90 seats, with the lion's share of 40 seats going to the Election Committee constituency, picked by the powerful body predominantly occupied by Beijing loyalists which also elects the city's leader. Thirty seats were allocated to the trade-based functional constituencies, while the number of directly elected lawmakers returned in the geographical constituencies was slashed from 35 to 20.