Record-low voter turnout as HK forms new LegCo

Pro-Beijing candidates swept Sunday's election to the city's Legislative Council (LegCo) under a "patriots-only" system that saw the lowest-ever voter turnouts.

Beijing, however, said that prospects for democracy in Hong Kong are "bright" while Chief Executive Carrie Lam added yesterday that she was "satisfied with this election".

Mrs Lam also said that a high turnout rate based on polarisation, as seen between the rival camps in 2019, "is not something we should be glad of".

The patriot-only resolution introduced in March had ensured that only 20 of the 90 seats were directly elected by the public, while the rest were picked by the proBeijing election committee and other groups that favour Beijing.

This meant that nearly all the seats were swept by pro-establishment candidates as only a dozen of those who contested oppose Beijing - and none of them won.

Backing a White Paper issued by China's State Council Information Office on Hong Kong's democratic progress, Mrs Lam noted: "There is no one-size-fits-all and there is no superior democratic system.

"Our democratic development should be in line with our constitutional order under the 'one country, two systems'."

Mrs Lam said the ultimate goal to have universal suffrage in choosing the city's leader was set out in the Basic Law and that central authorities had previously tried to advance the democratic system.

But legislators who claimed to be democrats "scuppered the plan", "dragging the feet of our democratic development".

The silver lining is that Hong Kong is now "back on the right track" with an improved system to ensure patriots govern the city, concluded Mrs Lam.

The Hong Kong leader is in Beijing from last night till Thursday to give an account of the city's state of affairs.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian yesterday said the territory has made a big step forward in the development of democracy with Hong Kong features.

"Patriots administering Hong Kong doesn't mean uniformity, but diversity," he said, noting that the election will help Hong Kong out of the "pan-politicisation" quagmire and develop high-quality democracy that fits Hong Kong's reality.

Mr Zhao noted that there was no democracy in Hong Kong under British rule but after the handover, Beijing paved the way for democracy with the "one country, two systems" principle.

In all, 153 candidates fought for 90 LegCo seats.

But only 30.2 per cent, or 1.35 million out of 4.5 million eligible voters, cast their votes in the direct election to choose 20 lawmakers, making it the lowest rate before and after the 1997 handover to China.

The previous lowest turnout rate was 35.8 per cent in 1996, a year before the handover. The past six LegCo elections have seen an average 51 per cent voter turnout.

Local reports estimated that the number of invalid votes was roughly 27,000, amounting to 2 per cent of total votes - a record high.

With the key pan-democratic parties skipping the election, about a dozen of the candidates who say they are not pro-establishment failed to win any seats in the geographical constituencies.

Instead, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong swept the direct elections, with its candidates winning in each of the 10 constituencies.