A consultant at a leading national think tank on Tuesday said Hong Kong's district councils will probably only have a small proportion of directly elected members in future.

Lau Siu-kai's comment came after Chief Executive John Lee said the authorities have almost completed a review of district administration and that the councils are "worth keeping".

Lau, a Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies consultant, said from Beijing's perspective, retaining the councils will be beneficial to the city's governance, adding that they can strengthen administration at a local level and emphasise the government's role in it.

He said directly elected councillors should account for only a small proportion of members and candidates ought to go through eligibility checks to be allowed to take part in polls.

DAB lawmaker Holden Chow echoed Lau's views, saying a screening mechanism is needed to make sure people joining district councils are genuine patriots.

Chow said people should not focus too much on how many directly elected members there are.

"You see from the example of the Legislative Council, we have a new election method. We have members elected in the geographical seats. We have also members elected from the Election Committee," he said.

"So these members are supposed to avoid populism and they can actually consider the general interests of Hong Kong."

Chow said it is time to put district councils back on track after they "derailed" from their roles as consultative bodies and were used as a platform to promote Hong Kong independence.

But Democratic Party chairman Lo Kin-hei said it would be a step backwards if the number of elected seats on district councils is reduced. He said such a move would also hinder public views from being represented.

The former Southern District Council chairman added that the bodies are now focused on livelihood issues and are no longer politicised.

"There are a lot of changes in the district council system already," he said. "If you look at the current district councils when they have meetings, even though there is still a majority of pan-democrats, those issues are gone."

Lo said his party will discuss whether members should try to become district councillors once the government has unveiled its review.