WONG FOR-KAM has long ceased to make her living only from catching grouper and snapper, but she still fishes and is proud of her profession. She is chairwoman of the Aberdeen Fisherwomen Association, whose 230 members work from a harbour crowded with sampans and trawlers. That obscure post gives her unexpected influence. Unlike most residents, the association has voting rights in the choice of Hong Kong’s chief executive, as the city’s leader is known.

The group is one of about 160 farming and fishing organisations which fill 60 of the 1,200 seats in the committee that selects the chief executive. The same farming and fishing groups also elect one of the 70 members of Hong Kong’s legislative council, or Legco. Granting special voting rights to businesses and professions is a practice dating to Hong Kong’s days as a British colony. Pro-democracy politicians want to end the system, but neither China’s ruling Communist Party, nor the interest groups themselves, are keen. “Our contributions, if you ask me, are very big,” says the 58-year-old Ms Wong, surrounded by piles of baskets, boxes and bamboo poles. “Because everybody eats fish.”

When the current chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, was chosen in 2012, delegates to the selection committee were chosen from four sectors: the professions; businesses; labour, social and religious groups; and politicians, including local legislators and delegates to the parliament in Beijing. A frequent complaint about the voting system is that it gives disproportionate representation to certain occupations. The 60 seats controlled by agriculture and fishing (aquaculture accounts for less than one-tenth of a percent of Hong Kong’s GDP) compare with a mere 18 seats allocated to financial firms. Ms Wong does not see a problem. “I don’t think we have enough seats,” she says firmly.

The Communist Party does not operate openly in Hong Kong—a nod to its “One country, two systems” principle. But it cultivates groups like Ms Wong’s which support its policies. Hong Kong’s fishing fleet of 4,000 vessels cannot afford to offend the Chinese authorities, who control vital fishing grounds.

On August 31st China’s parliament announced that, in the election for the post of chief executive due in 2017, the winner would be chosen by popular vote for the first time. But candidates must be pre-approved by a committee comprising representatives of much the same interest groups as before. Next month the government is expected to publish a bill that will be needed to implement these changes. Pro-democracy legislators have vowed to block it.

If the bill fails to pass, the current system will be preserved at least until 2022. Any attempt to scrap Legco’s “functional constituencies”, as the 50% of seats reserved for special interests are known, would then have to wait until 2024. The fisherwomen of Aberdeen harbour are likely to retain their peculiar political role for years to come.