According to a authorities information launch, provisional turnout was 30.2% by shut of polls — far decrease than the earlier report low of 43.6%, in 2000. The final legislative election 5 years in the past noticed a 58% turnout.
In an try to spice up the vote, the town provided free public transport all day — however relatively than going to the polls, many Hong Kongers as an alternative appeared to take the free trains and buses to climbing trails and campsites.
The outcomes, introduced Monday morning, noticed pro-establishment candidates declare all 20 seats within the obtainable geographic constituencies. None of the town’s main pro-democracy events fielded any candidates.
Carrie Lam, the town’s chief, thanked voters late Sunday evening, saying it was “an essential election following the enhancements to the electoral system to implement the precept of ‘patriots administering Hong Kong.”
The vote comes two years after pro-democracy, anti-government protests rocked Hong Kong for months, and greater than a 12 months after the introduction of a nationwide safety regulation, which bans secession, subversion, and collusion with international forces — occasions which have utterly remodeled the town’s social and political panorama.It’s additionally the town’s first Legislative Council election since stringent new electoral reforms had been handed in March. The adjustments gave the federal government larger vetting powers, dramatically lessening the general public’s skill to vote immediately for candidates, and solely allowed government-screened “patriots” to face.
Under the earlier system, about half of the 70-seat legislature was immediately elected by the general public, whereas the opposite half was chosen by commerce and trade our bodies that often favor pro-China candidates.
The new reforms expanded the legislature to 90 seats — however the overwhelming majority of those are managed by a pro-Beijing, government-appointed committee, and commerce and trade our bodies. Now, solely 20 seats are immediately elected by the general public — the bottom quantity since Hong Kong was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997.
Plenty of Hong Kong activists who fled overseas known as on voters to boycott the election within the run-up to Sunday, arguing it was a sham election — a criticism echoed by many rights teams and worldwide observers.
Former lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui, each in self-exile, had been amongst these advocating a boycott. Hong Kong authorities subsequently issued arrest warrants in opposition to them.
In Lam’s assertion Sunday evening, she argued the brand new electoral system was wanted for order and good “governance,” including that in earlier elections, “anti-China forces entered the political system … throwing the Legislative Council into chaos.”
Sunday’s low turnout stands in stark distinction to 2019, when almost 3 million folks — a 71.2% turnout — voted in district council elections that delivered a landslide victory for the pro-democracy camp.The 2019 election came about months into the protest motion, after million-strong marches and avenue clashes between demonstrators and police. At the time, the vote was framed as a de facto referendum on the protests. Under the nationwide safety regulation and Beijing’s crackdown on the town, political opposition has been all however worn out. Most opposition leaders and former pro-democracy lawmakers are actually both in jail or exile, whereas many of the councilors who gained in 2019 have both resigned, left Hong Kong, or been disqualified by the federal government.
In a information convention on Monday morning, Lam acknowledged Sunday’s turnout had been low — however argued that wasn’t essentially a nasty factor.
The excessive turnout of 2019 was “based mostly on polarization,” Lam stated. “The (2019) election solely had a excessive turnout fee due to the difficulties in Hong Kong,” she added. “It’s not one thing we must be happy with.”