AFP
Half a dozen people were arrested in Hong Kong on Sunday as the city’s first “patriots only” election stretched into midnight and officials denied being concerned by the possibility of low turnout in a race lacking opposition candidates.
Just before the polls were set to close on Sunday night, Chair of the Electoral Affairs Commission David Lo announced a rare 90-minute extension of voting to midnight, citing a failure in the digital system used to confirm voters’ eligibility and issue ballots. He denied that turnout was a factor in the decision.
“Our commission is a non-political body and turnout rate is not our concern,” Lok said.
Hong Kong last held district council elections at the peak of huge, sometimes violent, democracy protests in 2019, and recorded a historic-high 71 percent turnout — delivering a landslide victory for the democracy camp.
Afterwards, as city authorities clamped down on the political opposition — aided by a national security law imposed in 2020 by Beijing — more obstacles were added to the local legislature contests.
According to new rules announced in May, the number of seats that could be directly elected was slashed from 462 to 88, with the other 382 seats controlled by the city leader, government loyalists and rural landlords.
Candidates are now also required to seek nomination from three government-appointed committees, which effectively shut out all pro-democracy parties.
Over 70 percent of the candidates nominated to run for the election are themselves members of the nominating committees.
Around the city, posters urge Hong Kongers to participate in the vote, but on Sunday morning, polling booths in the wealthy Mid-Levels area saw only a smattering of ballot casters.
City leader John Lee said this year’s election was “the last piece of the puzzle to implement the principle of patriots ruling Hong Kong”, referring to a doctrine Beijing imposed on the financial hub to weed out from public office anyone deemed politically disloyal after the 2019 protests.
“From now on, the district councils would no longer be what they were in the past — which was a platform to destruct and reject the government’s administration, to promote Hong Kong independence and to endanger national security,” Lee said after he cast his ballot on Sunday.
A lone early voter, who gave the surname Lee, agreed that “it must be the patriots ruling Hong Kong”. The civil engineer added that “the election wouldn’t be affected just because some (candidates) can’t be part of it”.
– ‘One-sided’ –
The councillors for Hong Kong’s 18 districts handle mostly local issues — like sanitation, transport routes and public facilities.
But after Sunday’s election, they will “behave as local consultative bodies in name, and as the government’s echo chamber in practice”, said Kenneth Chan, a political scientist at the Hong Kong Baptist University.
“This is about achieving 100 percent political control above all,” he told AFP.
Senior officials indicated voter participation was not a chief concern, with Erick Tsang, the constitutional affairs minister overseeing the election, saying that “the turnout rate cannot be an indicator of the (new) system’s success”.
Some residents expressed apathy about the exercise on the eve of the election.
“What’s the point of voting? The political atmosphere is one-sided,” said a resident surnamed Ng.
More than 12,000 police officers were deployed across the city to prevent disturbances in the election, according to local media.
Six people were arrested on Sunday, including three activists and a couple, one of whom worked for the government.
The League of Social Democrats — one of the city’s last remaining opposition groups — said it had planned to stage a protest and that three of its members were followed from home and arrested by the police in the city’s Central District.
Police first accused the trio of “attempting to incite others to disrupt district council elections” and later passed them to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) over suspicion of “inciting others not to vote”.
The League called the arrest “extremely ironic and ridiculous” on an election day that was supposed to reflect various public opinions.
Separately, the ICAC said it had arrested a couple and a woman — who was unrelated — for reposting or leaving a comment on social media posts that allegedly incited others to cast invalid ballots.
On Friday, the national security police arrested a 77-year-old man for an “attempt to carry out seditious acts”.
A 38-year-old man was charged on Tuesday for reposting a video of an overseas commentator that allegedly incited people to boycott the election.
