Hong Kong district council elections: pan-democrats pledge to broadcast meetings, scrap proxy votes and review costly projects
- Live-streaming of council meetings will help engage residents, councillors say
- Minutes of meetings will show who said what, in a bid to improve accountability
Those interviewed by the Post said the camp wanted to implement live video streaming of council meetings, scrap the practice of proxy votes which allowed absent councillors to let colleagues act on their behalf, and relook at projects with hefty price tags.
After winning 392 out of 452 seats in the November 24 polls, pan-democrats form the majority in 17 out of 18 district councils.
Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai, a veteran councillor in Wong Tai Sin district who did not seek re-election, said pan-democrats must make good use of their new advantage and raise the quality of council meetings.
His advice to them: “You have to raise the standard of debate and be responsible with what you say.”
One plan in that direction is to provide verbatim minutes of meetings, showing who said what.
Before the election, all district councils were led by the pro-establishment camp, with some recording summaries of their proceedings without naming speakers, a practice critics said undermined accountability.
