The temperature over the past few days are below average. Instead of turning on a electric heater, I pick up a copy of the public consultation document outlining the local government's plans to reform the local legislature to keep warm. In fact, my blood may become boiling hot when reading the document.
The government proposes to increase the number of legislators to 70 (compared to the current 60) in 2012. The Chinese central government had decreed that the number of legislators elected through geographical constituencies, or those who represent one electoral district, and functional constituencies, or those who represent a particular profession, be equal. Each legislative electoral district is likely to gain one seat under the proposal. So the difficult part is the distribution of the 5 additional seats coming from the functional constituencies.
Under the government proposal, the elected district councilors (whose function is similar to town council members elsewhere, only with less power) would be the ones eligible to vote and be nominated in the newly added functional constituency. (This proposal is similar to the one that was defeated four years ago.)
The problem with this is that there is already one person in the legislature representing the district councilors. The proposal would result in district councilors having disproportionately large representation and, depending on the electoral method, the party having a large number of district councilors may claim most, if not all, of the seats. There is also a risk that legislators elected by district councilors may give more weight to the interest of one's own district over the interest of the city. For example, such a legislator may be wish to defeat a motion to streamline bus routes if the canceled routes pass through one's own district. "Balanced participation" is a word frequently used by government officials to defend the current system and the proposal, but under this proposal district councilors, some of who were elected through acclamation, may have the power to elect 7 legislative councilors (or more, if one is an elector in other functional constituencies). (I can go on about other people in town having multiple votes and me having just one, but then I would veer too far off-topic.)
If the extra seats in the functional councilors should not come from the district council, which sector should get the seats? There are many sectors — Chinese medicine, small-and-medium enterprises, domestic workers — that demand to have a functional constituency seat of their own, but adding functional constituencies seats based on profession would make future removal of such seats difficult if not impossible. (Two-thirds majority is required to changing the distribution of geographical and functional constituency seats in the legislature and I doubt many legislators representing functional constituencies would vote to eliminate their seat in the legislature.)
Many, especially those who support the government's reform proposal, will probably say that one shouldn't complain about the government's proposal without offering any alternative ideas. Since the decree that requires legislators elected through geographical and functional constituencies to be equal is unlikely to be repealed, I offer a solution that would make the legislative elections more democratic under the current seat distribution.
Under my proposal, the number of seats in the legislature would be increased to 80. The number of legislative councilors elected through geographical and functional constituencies would remain equal at 40 each. The geographical constituencies would be distributed by population as before and the 10 new legislators elected through functional constituencies would be divided into two sectors: male and female (to satisfy calls to incorporate a women functional constituency). 5 legislators are elected from each sector. The electors would be registered voters from throughout the territory and voters would vote on candidates of the same gender. Similar to geographical constituency, the winners would be determined using the largest remainder method.
Balanced participation is achieved since every voter gets to participate and those elected would represent the interests of the entire territory, since they probably need votes from different classes (and professions) to be elected. No one would dispute the representativeness of these legislators. The number of women elected to the legislative council is likely to increase. These legislators would be less hesitant in totally eliminating functional constituencies (the ultimate goal) in the future (since they already represent half the population).
The problem is that this proposal, which I admit is quite silly, would probably be rejected by the government on the grounds that it is too simple and easy to understand. Besides, we shoudln't dismiss four years of hard work so quickly (sarcasm alert!).