Hong Kong elections are overwhelmingly won by pro-Beijing politicians.
She stated that 92.5 percent of eligible voters had registered, which is a record high when compared to the 2012 and 2016 elections, when only around 70% of eligible voters had registered.
After pro-democracy activists were imprisoned and authorities were given the power to exclude those deemed unfit for office, candidates loyal to China’s Communist Party won a landslide victory in Hong Kong’s legislative elections.
After regulations were amended to ensure that only pro-Beijing “patriots” could administer the city, candidates loyal to Beijing gained a majority of the seats in Sunday’s election.
Despite a 30.2 percent voter turnout — the lowest since the British handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997 — Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said she was “satisfied” with the election during a news conference on Monday.
She stated that 92.5 percent of eligible voters had registered, which is a record high when compared to the 2012 and 2016 elections, when only around 70% of eligible voters had registered.
“It is absolutely up to registered voters to decide whether or not they wish to exercise their voting rights in a given election,” she said.
“Around 1.35 million people voted in this election. They didn’t just send their preferred candidates to LegCo, and I believe it was also because of their support for the city’s improved electoral system,” Lam said, referring to the city’s Legislative Council.
Even though the assembly was extended from 70 to 90 seats, the number of directly elected lawmakers was lowered from 35 to 20 under the new statutes. The majority of legislators were appointed by largely pro-Beijing bodies, ensuring that they make up the legislature’s majority.
Before being nominated, all candidates were scrutinized by a committee that was predominantly pro-Beijing.
Even if there was a high turnout due to “bad politics,” such as political polarization during the period of political strife in 2019, Lam said, it is “not something we should be grateful for.”
The 30 percent turnout was within “general public expectation,” according to Starry Lee, an elected pro-Beijing legislative council candidate from the Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong party.
“As I previously stated, this is a new system, a system that we refer to as patriots administering Hong Kong,” Lee said.
“Because this one is different from the prior one, you can’t compare them directly.” And I feel that individuals will need time to adjust to the new system.”
The elections have been condemned by the opposition camp, with the Democratic Party, the country’s main pro-democracy party, fielding no candidates for the first time since the 1997 transition.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said there were “many causes” for the drop in voter turnout.
At a daily briefing, Zhao stated, “It is not only the impact of the epidemic, but also the disruption and sabotage of anti-China groups in Hong Kong and external forces.”
Some pro-democracy campaigners from throughout the world, like Nathan Law of London, have called for a boycott of the elections, claiming that they are undemocratic. Incitement to boycott voting or cast illegitimate votes could result in up to three years in prison and a fine of 200,000 Hong Kong dollars ($26,500) under the new election regulations.
The foreign ministers of Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States expressed “grave concern” over the erosion of democratic elements of Hong Kong’s electoral system and growing restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly in a joint statement released by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“The most efficient approach to preserve Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity is to protect space for peaceful alternative viewpoints,” they stated.
Because they have differing viewpoints on many social topics, Lam expects working with the 90 legislators to be “quite interesting.”
Lam was scheduled to fly to Beijing later Monday for a duty-reporting trip, during which she will provide Beijing a detailed assessment of Hong Kong’s current political and economic condition, according to her.
“On this specific duty visit, I anticipate to cover a wide range of subjects since, thanks to two extremely significant decisions by the central authorities, Hong Kong is now back on the proper track of ‘one country, two systems,'” she added.
