HONG KONG—Hong Kong’s legislature unanimously voted on Thursday to overhaul district level elections by drastically reducing directly elected seats, a move critics said removed some of the last vestiges of democratic freedoms in the China-ruled city.
Under the amendment bill, only 88 seats would be directly elected by the public, down from 452 seats in an election that saw a landslide victory by the democracy camp in 2019. The number of overall seats would also be reduced from 479–470.
The bill will further stifle the remaining democratic opposition in Hong Kong, with a China-imposed national security law having already led to the arrests of former lawmakers and district councilors and the disbandment of several democratic political parties, including the Civic Party….