The election is on 7th Dec. But I think nobody had any doubt, given all the maneuvering to put her on the ballot, that Kong will be 'elected' as the new member for the Tourism sector.

This just highlights how absurd elections in Hong Kong have become, especially after the 'improvement' in 2021 9/

Lastly, Kong's candidacy also raises even more questions about the potential influence of the upcoming election behind the scenes.

It's difficult to fathom a 31 YO former athlete would spontaneously decide that the Tourism seat is her natural Constituency and she could competently represent them 8/

Since it's impossible to disqualify elected dual citizens after the fact if too many were elected. The statue instead carved out specific FC seats where dual citizens could run.

Unsurprisingly, the Tourism seat is one of them 7/

Kong's candidacy for LEGCO has long been rumoured,. Supposedly intended to run in a directly elected seat. But she face a major obstacle.

Kong is a dual citizen of HK and Canada. Under the Basic Law, they are not barred from being elected, but their number in LEGCO is restricted 6/

To make it even more bizarre, there is a seat for sports, publishing and culture in the LEGCO, an arguably more natural fit for a former Olympic Gold medalist.

Then why is Kong running for the Tourism seat? 6/

What makes Kong's candidacy stand out is her lack of obvious connection to the Tourism sector that she is running.

She was an athlete before working as a PR manager. It's difficult to see how she could fulfil even the supposed function of FCs: to represent important sectorial interests 5/

Not only were the size of the electorate of most FCs are really small, but the voters aren't even individuals, but "bodies" (Companies, license holders, business associations) etc.) 4/

FCs has long been accused of being heavily skewed toward corporate interest and the upper class at the expense of ordinary citizens, even before the controversial electoral reforms of 2021. And is seen as am important means for Beijing to exerts it's influence 3/

Kong is running in the Tourism sector seat, one of the Functional Constituencies in the LEGCO.

Supposedly representing important sectorial interest, ensuring the professional views are represented, FCs has long been accused of being the modern day rotten boroughs, underming democracy 2/

@niceonecombo.bsky.social 😉

Hi, I'm one of the coauthors of the paper above. I came across this post from an altmetric alert.

I just want to add, in response to your original question, that we did look into exe-leg relation in the project and we did not find any correlation, the result is in the appendix of the paper.

What do you mean "It was dangerous", Professor? That the mobile signal may somehow interfere with the self-driving AI of the vehicle?