Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong dramatically slashed the number of elected seats in its local district councils on Tuesday, effectively gutting the city's last remaining set of democratic institutions.
The change is part of a widespread crackdown by Beijing on political freedoms in Hong Kong following massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The last elections for Hong Kong's district councils were held at the peak of those demonstrations and returned a landslide win for the city's pro-democracy bloc.
But city leader John Lee announced Tuesday that directly elected seats to the councils will be cut from more than 90 percent to 20 percent to ensure they are controlled by Beijing loyalists.
He said the reforms would "put wrongs to rights" and the councils elected in 2019 were "platforms of protest violence and Hong Kong independence".
"Many council members refused to pledge their allegiance...they refused to recognise the People's Republic of China as Hong Kong's sovereign state," Lee said at a press conference.
Lee announced the change weeks after China's top official on Hong Kong affairs said the district councils could no longer fall into the hands of "anti-China destabilising forces".
The percentage of elected seats is now lower than when the district councils were created in 1982 under British colonial rule, rolling back decades of democratisation efforts.
Eighty percent of their seats will be filled by government-appointed members.
"What is good for Hong Kong has to be taken into consideration and what happened in the past and what will happen in the future," Lee said.
Candidates for election will have to secure nominations from three government-appointed committees and will be vetted for political loyalty and national security risks.
Such vetting is already in place for candidates running for seats in Hong Kong's legislature, which underwent an overhaul after the protests to ensure only "patriots" can stand.
Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong to crush dissent after the huge and at times violent pro-democracy protests four years ago, which brought millions onto Hong Kong's streets.
Since then more than 300 democratically elected district council members have been unseated or resigned -- with some fleeing the city.
Kenneth Chan, a political scholar at Hong Kong Baptist University, told AFP that the change "confirms the perception that a pathway towards democracy has ended for good".
"It now looks like the district councillors...would just be the echo chambers serving mostly the administration rather than channelling bottom-up views and expectations from the community level."
