Hong Kong election defies expectations of turnout drop amid anger over deadly fire

HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s election on Dec 7 saw a near-record-low turnout after the city’s

worst fire in nearly 80 years

prompted anger against its China-backed authorities, but voter participation did not drop as much as some analysts had predicted.

The city government said the final turnout in the Legislative Council election was 31.9 per cent, versus 30.2 per cent in the previous vote in 2021, which was the lowest since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The fire had changed the “social atmosphere, making it a very difficult election for us to organise,” Mr David Lok, chairman of the Election Commission, told a press briefing early Dec 8.

Security was tight in the northern district of Tai Po, close to the border with mainland China, where the fire engulfed seven residential towers.

Security was tight in the northern district of Tai Po, close to the border with mainland China, where the fire engulfed seven residential towers. Only candidates vetted as “patriots” by the China-backed Hong Kong government were allowed to run.

Residents are angry over the blaze that killed at least 159 people and took nearly two days to extinguish after it broke out on Nov 26. The authorities say substandard building materials used in renovating a high-rise housing estate were responsible for fuelling the fire.

Eager to contain the public dismay, authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations into the blaze, and roughly 100 police patrolled the area around Wang Fuk Court, the site of the fire, throughout Dec 7.

Authorities make arrests for inciting vote boycott

The city’s anti-corruption agency said on Dec 7 four men were arrested on suspicion of using social media to incite people not to vote or cast invalid votes. It obtained an arrest warrant for another man for a social media post on Dec 6.

Publicly inciting a vote boycott was criminalised as part of the sweeping changes that effectively squeezed out pro-democracy voices in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy voters, who traditionally made up about 60 per cent of the electorate, have since shunned elections.

Shortly before midnight, authorities started clearing flowers and other offerings from a memorial site close to the burned-out residential development, a pre-announced move that suggested government anxiety over public anger.

Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong has said it would crack down on any “anti-China” protest in the wake of the fire and warned against using the disaster to “disrupt Hong Kong”.

China’s national security office in Hong Kong warned senior editors with a number of foreign media outlets at a meeting in the city on Dec 6 not to spread “false information” or “smear” government efforts to deal with the fire.

The blaze is a major test of Beijing’s grip on the former British colony, which it has transformed under a national security law after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.

An election overhaul in 2021 also mandated that only pro-Beijing “patriots” could run for the global financial hub’s 90-seat legislature. Only 20 of those seats are directly elected.

A resident in his late 70s named Cheng, who lives near the charred buildings, said he did not vote.

“I’m very upset by the great fire,” he said, declining to give his full name for fear of becoming a target for authorities.

“I won’t vote to support those pro-establishment politicians who failed us.”

The number of registered voters for Sunday’s polls - 4.13 million - has dropped for the fourth consecutive year since 2021, when a peak of 4.47 million people were registered.

Some analysts were predicting potentially lower turnout given the city’s sombre mood and both Hong Kong and Chinese officials stressed the importance of the vote ahead of the poll.

“We absolutely need all voters to come out and vote today, because every vote represents our push for reform, our protection of the victims of (fire) disaster, and a representation of our will to unite and move forward together,” Hong Kong leader John Lee said after casting his vote. REUTERS