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Pro-Beijing candidates are running uncontested for most seats in a Hong Kong election committee tasked with choosing the city’s leader, with the pro-democracy camp almost absent, government announcements showed on Friday.
▶ 親北京候選人將在無競爭下競逐，選舉香港特首的選委會多數席位。政府在周五的公告顯示，民主派幾近缺席。
The Sept. 19 vote for the committee is the first election since China overhauled Hong Kong’s electoral system in May to ensure the former British colony is run by “patriots” loyal to Beijing.
▶ 本屆選委會選舉將於9月19日舉行，是5月中國大幅修改香港選舉制度，確保這個前英國殖民地由忠誠於北京的「愛國者」所領導。
After the one-week nomination period ended on Thursday, the government said it had received just 1,056 nominations for the 980 seats open to competition.
▶ 歷時一周的提名期在周四完結，對於980個開放競逐的席位，政府表示僅收到1056份提名。
A new committee which can disqualify candidates is tasked by law to work closely with Chinese security authorities to vet contenders for the election committee as well as the leadership election in 2022.
▶ 一個新設立、能夠褫奪參選人資格的委員會被設立，將依法與中國國安機構緊密合作，對選委會及2022年特首選舉的參選人作背景審查。
The composition of the election committee is the latest blow to the opposition movement which has seen scores of members arrested, jailed or flee Hong Kong since Beijing imposed a national security law on the city last year.
▶ 自去年北京在港落實國安法後，反對派有大量成員被捕、被監禁或離港，而選委會的構成對其則是又一次打擊。
Membership of the committee for 117 community-level district councillors dominated by democrats was scrapped and more than 500 seats designated for Chinese business, political and interest groups were added.
▶ 117個民主派區議員的選委會委員資格遭褫奪，同時新增逾500個代表中國商界、政界及利益團體的席次。
Representation from professional subsectors that traditionally had a bigger pro-democracy presence, including legal, education, social welfare, medical and health services, was diluted by the addition of ex-officio members which reduced the number of elected seats.
▶ 法律界、教育界、社福界、醫學衛生界等，傳統上民主派勢力較強的界別，選舉席次減少，由新增的官守成員代替並沖淡。
Twenty-three of the 36 subsectors that are open for contest, totalling about 600 seats, will not see any competition because the number of candidates matched the number of seats, suggesting coordination of nominations.
▶ 開放競逐的36個界別中，有23個合共600個席次，由於候選人數目等同於總席次，不會出現任何競爭，顯示提名過程中存在協調。
About 70% of the nominees were new faces who did not feature in the last two polls for the committee, which will have 1,500 members instead of the previous 1,200, Reuters calculations based on the election committee website showed.
▶ 路透社據選委會網站資料估計，約七成候選人是過去兩屆從未參選選委會的新面孔。選委會委員數目，亦由之前的1200人增至1500人。
China had promised universal suffrage as an ultimate goal for Hong Kong in its mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which also states the city has wide-ranging autonomy from Beijing.
▶ 中國曾在香港「小憲法」、即基本法中保證，普選為香港的最終目標。基本法中同樣列明，北京賦予香港大範圍的自治權。
Democracy campaigners and Western countries say the political overhaul moves the city in the opposite direction, leaving the democratic opposition with the most limited space it has had since the handover in 1997.
▶ 社運人士及西方國家指，這場大規模的政制改動將這座城市推向相反方向，令民主派的參政空間縮至1997年主權移交以來的最低。
Many of the city’s prominent tycoons, including Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing, will not be on the election committee for the first time, as Beijing seeks to rebalance power from big conglomerates to small businesses.
▶ 由於北京希望將權力從大財團轉移至小企業，包括首富李嘉誠在內的許多香港富豪，都將首次缺席選委會。
Li, of Cheung Kong Holdings, together with other property moguls, Lee Shau-kee of Henderson Land, both 93, and Henry Cheng, 74, of New World Development, withdrew from the race, although their sons will retain the seats they already hold.
▶ 同為93歲的長江實業的李嘉誠與恆基地產的李兆基，以及新世界發展的鄭家純(74)，都退出競逐，但他們的兒子將繼續保留選委會席次。
The election committee will elect 40 seats in the revamped Legislative Council in December, and choose a Hong Kong chief executive in March, 2022.
▶ 這屆選委會將在改制後的立法會，選出40席，並將在2022年3月選出新一任香港特首。
原文：First Hong Kong election under revamped system to be largely uncontested (Reuters)
