(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)

Chief Executive Carrie Lam today said 20 seats in the Legislative Council will be returned from 10 geographical constituencies under the new electoral system.

Mrs Lam unveiled the Improving Electoral System (Consolidated Amendments) Bill 2021 at a press conference this afternoon.

According to the amended Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law which were adopted by the National People's Congress Standing Committee, LegCo will consist of 40 members from the Election Committee constituency, 30 from the functional constituencies and 20 from the geographical constituencies.

The 20 geographical constituency members will be returned by the double seats and single vote method from 10 geographical constituencies across the city, with five in the New Territories, three in Kowloon and two on Hong Kong Island.

Mrs Lam explained: “When the number of directly elected geographical constituency members in the Legislative Council is down to 20, we are required to look at how we organise district-based elections in Hong Kong and try to come up with these 10 districts, each to return two members into the Legislative Council.

“So an easy way to do it is to merge the much smaller constituencies that made up the District Council elections and also (to) take into account the size of the population.

“We are following the established rule that is within a range, it will not have a district which is too huge, too large (or) another one which is too small. So that is the basis.”

The seventh term LegCo elections will take place on December 19, the Chief Executive added.