Tam Yiu Chung, member of China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, stated on the morning of 4th August, 2020 that having to take one’s identification card to an actual polling place and cast a paper vote is an “archaic” method; he also felt that the SAR regime needs to solve problems such as absentee and electronic voting.

China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress will be convening for a four day straight assembly on Saturday (8th August, 2020), in which it is expected that the problem of Hong Kong legislature being in limbo will be dealt with. During the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) programme Talkabout, Tam stated that any decisions the Standing Committee will make, would be comprising of a set of principles that needs to be clear and feasible, so that in executing the NPC’s decision, the SAR regime would have a concrete course of action with no possibility for confusion; and that a dilemma will arise if the four current members of the Legislative Council who has had their qualification as election candidates revoked, were to have their terms extended during this “legislative void”.

He also indicated that, with advanced technology available nowadays, still having to take one’s identity card to an actual voting place to cast a paper ballot vote has its flaws, as well as describing the method as “archaic”. Tam believes that the SAR regime needs to resolve issues such as absentee voting and electronic voting; that the government no longer has any excuse to evade the matter, now that it has a year’s time to explore electoral methods.


(Image source: screen capture from RTHK)