Angrily to the polls

THE people of Hong Kong go to the polls on September 10th to elect a new legislative council (Legco). Well, up to a point they do. In fact, few new candidates are running. And only 24 of Legco's 60 seats will be filled by direct election in the territory's five geographical constituencies (up from 20 seats in the previous elections two years ago). Half of all the seats are for narrow “functional” constituencies. These supposedly represent various sectors of the “community”, but their effect is to ensure that Legco looks and acts like a business lobby sharing the conservatism of Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa. A final half-dozen seats are to be chosen by a pro-China “electoral committee” of 800 worthies. In the last polls, liberals won three-fifths of the popular vote. But because the electoral rules are elegantly rigged to ensure that a majority vote does not mean majority representation, liberals will get a disproportionately small number of seats in the new Legco.