The pro-China candidates from Hong Kong they emerged victorious from a reformed parliamentary election on Sunday (19) with only “patriots” participating. Critics called the election undemocratic, and he had a record low turnout amid a chinese repression to freedoms in the city.
The 30.2% turnout, about half the number in the previous vote from 2016, was seen by pro-democracy activists as a repudiation of the China, which imposed a comprehensive national security law and sweeping electoral changes to further subject the city to its authoritarian yoke.
Nearly all the openings went to pro-China and pro-establishment candidates, some of whom cheered on stage at the vote-counting center and chanted “guaranteed victory.”
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said at a press conference on Monday (20) that attendance was indeed low, but she could not specify the reasons.
“But 1.35 million going to vote you can’t say it wasn’t…an election that didn’t get a lot of citizen support,” Lam said.
When asked whether low turnout means her party lacks public backing, Starry Lee, head of the pro-China Democratic Alliance for the Improvement and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) – which won half of the directly elected seats – said the rules exclusive to patriots will improve governance.
“It takes time for people to adjust to this system,” she told reporters at the vote-counting center.
The election, in which only government-approved candidates as “patriots” could run, was criticized by some foreign governments, human rights groups and traditional Hong Kong pro-democracy parties, who did not participate in the vote, claiming it was undemocratic.
Most of the dozen or so candidates who consider themselves moderates, including former Democratic lawmaker Frederick Fung, have failed to secure a seat, losing to pro-China rivals.
“It is not easy to induce people (to vote). I think they are feeling indifferent,” Fung told Reuters.
The previous low turnout record in a parliamentary election held after 1997, when the United Kingdom returned the city to Chinese rule, was 43.6 percent in 2000. About 2 percent of votes cast on Sunday were invalid, a record high, according to local media calculations.
The China Liaison Office in Hong Kong, which represents the Chinese government in the territory, described the election as a “successful practice of democracy with Hong Kong characteristics”.
Reference: CNN Brasil
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