Growing number of ex-officials enter race for Hong Kong Election Committee seats

A growing number of former senior government officials have joined the race for seats on Hong Kong’s Election Committee, a trend observers say will enhance the prestige and legitimacy of the body tasked with choosing the city’s next leader.

As the two-week nomination period draws to a close next Tuesday, the Registration and Electoral Office had received 1,115 nominations for 982 elected seats on the Election Committee as of Friday.

The poll will be held on November 22 and the elected members will join 362 ex officio members and 156 members nominated by designated bodies, to select Hong Kong’s next chief executive in March next year.

A notable feature of this year’s nominations is the number of former senior officials returning to politics.

Former justice minister Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung is standing in the legal subsector, while former health minister Sophia Chan Siu-chee and former undersecretary for health Libby Lee Ha-yun, now the Hospital Authority’s chief executive, are running in the medical and health services subsector.