Hong Kong election: candidates, officials make last-ditch push to drum up voter enthusiasm for Legco poll, even as some seek to manage expectations for turnout
- Mass text messages and last-minute canvassing are among the efforts aimed at boosting turnout
- But calls for a boycott from ‘foreign forces or anti-Chinese elements’ could affect participation, constitutional affairs chief Erick Tsang says
The “emergency appeals” to voters, as some pro-establishment candidates termed them, came as officials braced for what could be the lowest voter participation levels in decades, and as a local court issued arrest warrants for five overseas activists who called on Hongkongers to boycott the election.
In an unprecedented move, the city’s electoral office sent out a mass text message on Saturday, urging registered voters to take part.
“Casting your vote for HK – our home! Legco Election is important to you and HK’s future! Please vote at your polling station,” the English-language message read.
But Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai warned calls for a boycott of the poll and interference by “foreign forces” could contribute to low turnout.
“Voter turnout could be affected by many factors. Some foreign forces or anti-Chinese elements have been befogging the minds of the people and urging them not to vote. We do not rule out that this could affect [people’s enthusiasm],” Tsang told a radio programme.
The government, he added, had “set no target” for the turnout.
Tsang also rejected criticism from Western countries that low voter participation would indicate Beijing’s revamp of the electoral system had failed, asking critics to instead focus on what he called the overhaul’s primary aim – to “achieve good governance”.
Some 4.5 million residents have registered to vote for representatives of the enlarged Legco, which will start its new term next month. But with the mainstream opposition having shunned the poll, and the number of directly elected seats slashed from 35 to 20, turnout is expected to be lacklustre – a prediction bolstered by recent surveys.
Some self-exiled opposition activists on Saturday renewed their social media calls for Hongkongers to boycott the poll, including fugitive Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang, who is currently seeking asylum in the United States.
“Genuine pro-democracy supporters should not participate in this election, otherwise they are the accomplices of the regime and become part of the Chinese Communist Party’s script of presenting a false appearance of peace,” he wrote on Facebook.
Cheung was one of five overseas activists hit with arrest warrants on Saturday over accusations of inciting others not to vote or to cast invalid ballots. The other four were fugitive former lawmaker Nathan Law Kwun-chung and ex-district councillors Timothy Lee Hin-long, Lee Ka-wai and Lau Ka-man.
A total of 10 people have been arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which enforces the city’s election law, for the same offence. Inciting others to boycott an election or cast a blank ballot is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Earlier in the month, The Wall Street Journal ran an editorial saying that “boycotts and blank ballots are one of the last ways for Hongkongers to express their political views”.
Meanwhile, despite the seemingly cold public sentiment around the election, competition was heating up in the Hong Kong Island East geographical constituency – one of 10 in the city – where independent Jason Poon Chuk-hung, who was publicly endorsed by some pan-democratic politicians, is running against three pro-establishment figures for two seats.
Poon was one of several candidates to hit the streets on Saturday to canvas for last-minute votes.
His opponents, Leung Hei of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, Stanley Ng Chau-pei of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and Marcus Liu Tin-shing of the New People’s Party similarly went out to press the flesh and make “emergency appeals” to voters.
Writing on his official blog on Saturday, Chief Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu appealed to residents to choose candidates who could form an efficient legislature capable of monitoring the government while also working with it to build a better Hong Kong.
To avoid a repeat of the long delays in ballot counting after the vote for the powerful Election Committee in September, senior officials including Tsang and civil service chief Patrick Nip Tak-kuen were seen inspecting several polling stations and the central counting station on Saturday.
Mr Justice Barnabas Fung Wah, chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, said he hoped the first round of results in Sunday’s election – involving 1,488 eligible voters in the new 40-seat Election Committee constituency – would be out by 2.30am on Monday, four hours after polls closed.
The Post has learned that there was no “preapproved” list from Beijing of candidates to support in the Election Committee constituency, leaving members of the establishment-dominated body “to pick the right people to serve Hong Kong according to their own judgment”, one source said.
Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying, now a state leader, could be named chief convenor of the Election Committee. Leung on Saturday urged the government to boldly push ahead with reforms in the new legislative term and listed housing and youth issues as critical.
All the election results, including those for the 20 seats still directly elected by residents and the 30 in the mainly trade-based functional constituencies, are expected to be announced by Monday noon, according to Fung.
