The registration period for September's LegCo elections is still under way. The link goes to the government's site that lists how the 30 geographical constituencies are spread around Hong Kong and what the 30 functional constituencies are.

Hong Kong's elected government features the LegCo, District Councils, and in some parts Rural Committees. Yes, there are still parts of Hong Kong which are rural, though the village election system for the rural committees has some oddities about who is eligible to vote. And then there is the Heung Yee Kuk, which acts as an umbrella group for the villages, kind of a council of village elders. Peng Chau is represented by the Peng Chau Rural Committee, the Islands District Council, and by the New Territories West LegCo geographical constituency. Two of the functional constituency seats in LegCo are for the District Councillors and another for the Heung Yee Kuk.

The news I'll focus on first is the shuffling of the line up for these two seats. The Standard today reports on political nudging going on between the Heung Yee Kuk and the Liberal Party. The current chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, Lau Wong-fat, is a member of the Liberal Party and serves in LegCo representing the Heung Yee Kee functional seat. Lau has filed to run for LegCo in the District Council functional constituency. Taking his spot to run for LegCo in the Heung Yee Kee constituency is Daniel Lam Wai-keung. The link points to Daniel Lam Wai-keung's welcome message to the Islands District Council, where Lam is the President. I'd been personally wondering if something was brewing for Mr. Lam as he's been on Peng Chau a few nights in the last week holding dinners and the like. From what I know, Mr. Lam doesn't actually live in the Islands District, so his visits tend to be political in nature. I've heard some other speculation, but I wasn't in Hong Kong at the time of the last District Council elections, so I'm not fully informed on all of the connections and positions.

The other news comes from the unlinkable SCMP and the New Territories. Yesterday Liberal Party chairman, James Tien Pei-chun, officially filed to run in the geographical constituency of New Territories East.

Forsaking his customary Porsche to pack in with fellow candidates and hangers-on, the wealthy businessman known as "Young Master Tien" was full of confidence, despite repeatedly complaining about the bus's lack of power on the hills.

Beijing has forced two political parties in to semi-retirement to open the way for the Liberal Party in the New Territories, the Progressive Alliance (Beijing's former pro-business United Front partner) and the New Century Forum.

The other surprise is the Kenneth Ting Woo-shou has renounced his Canadian citizenship to run on a ticket with Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee for the Liberal Party in New Territories West. I wonder if either Mr. Ting or Ms. Chow will make it to visit Peng Chau?