On Saturday a symphony of mobile phone notifications rolled across Hong Kong as residents received text messages reminding them to vote in the legislative election. But most Hong Kongers chose to stay away from the patriots only election Sunday — the first since Beijing revamped the semi-autonomous territory s electoral system to allow only those loyal to China to run.
Many pro-democracy figures and experts say that the low turnout is directly linked to the lack of meaningful opposition: Dozens of pro-democracy figures are in jail and several others have fled. Others didn't participate in the election.
The election overhaul, passed in May, meant that voters had less choice in who governs Hong Kong. The number and proportion of directly elected seats in the city's legislative council, commonly known as LegCo, was reduced. The majority of the seats in the chamber were originally filled with 35 of the 70 seats, but now they select 20 out of 90 seats. The rest of the lawmakers are chosen by special interest groups and Beijing loyalists. Candidates must be vetted and approved by a government committee, so that patriots are only on the ballot.
But despite efforts by the Hong Kong government to get people to the polls - including a $430,000 ad campaign in local newspapers and free public transportation on election day - many Hong Kongers stayed away from the city's first patriots only election.
About 30% of the 4.5 million registered voters in Hong Kong cast ballots for LegCo - a lower than the previous record of 43% in 2000. More than 58% of registered voters turned out for the last LegCo elections in 2016. More than 70% of the voters turned out to local council elections in November 2019. Officials took a hardline approach to anyone who suggested that Hong Kongers should not participate in the election. A senior Hong Kong official threatened to take action against Wall Street earlier this month over an op-ed that said boycotts and blank ballots are one of the last ways for Hong Kongers to express their political views. At least 10 people were arrested for inciting people not to vote or to cast invalid votes ahead of the election.
Dennis Kwok, who served as a pro-democracy legislator from 2012 to 2020, tells TIME that many Hong Kongers don't feel the new system has credibility. Kwok, who was unseated in 2020 after China s top legislative body adopted a resolution that allowed local officials to remove unpatriotic lawmakers, said they locked up all candidates and changed the rules. He is now a senior fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. Hong Kongans feel there is no point in participating, he says.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam told Chinese state-owned tabloid The Global that low turnout would be meaningless ahead of the election. The voter turnout will decrease because the people don't have a strong demand to choose different lawmakers to supervise the government when the government is doing well and its credibility is high, she said.
In response to the unrest that began in the summer of 2019 as peaceful mass protests, the rejiggering of the electoral system was part of a crackdown on dissent in the former British colony. The demonstrations morphed into violent street battles that threw the city into chaos, shutting down businesses, choking traffic and shutting down public transport - even briefly forcing the closure of the city's international airport. Protesters lit pro-Beijing businesses on fire and broke into and vandalized the LegCo chamber.
In June 2020, Beijing s clampdown saw the imposition of the National Security Law which criminalizes secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with penalties of up to life imprisonment. More than 150 people have been arrested under the law, including dozens of democratic lawmakers who participated in unofficial pre-election primaries in July 2020, which were declared to be illegal under the law.
Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world that has zero locally transmitted COVID 19 cases thanks to stringent entry requirements, including 21 days of hotel quarantine.
Officials defended the new electoral system, saying rules were needed to keep Hong Kong secure. During the protests, tensions within LegCo resulted in deadlocks and in one instance, a physical fight, as lawmakers tried to take control of the chairperson's seat for a key legislative committee. A pro-democracy lawmaker dropped a container of rotting plants in the chamber during a debate on a controversial national anthem law in May 2020.
Xia Baolong, director of Beijing's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs OfficeMacau Affairs Office, said on December 6 that Hong Kongers had wasted time blindly seeking Western-style democracy. He said that it brought social divisions, vicious fights, which cause crises such as a disorderly society, an imbalanced economy and ineffective governance.
After the election Monday, Beijing released a report that judged the election reforms successful, saying they would ensure the long-term development of democracy in Hong Kong.