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Hong Kong’s first “patriots only” district council elections saw a turnout of 27.5 percent, the government said Monday, a record-low number.
Previously, the lowest turnout rate since the city’s handover to China was 35.82 percent, recorded in 1999.
Sunday’s voting day stretched to midnight, after a 90-minute extension was granted following a failure in the digital system used to confirm voters’ eligibility.
Despite the extra time, the government’s official website was updated on Monday morning to show a final turnout of 27.54 percent, with just shy of 1.2 million out of 4.3 million registered electors having gone to the polls.
Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee thanked the “more than 1 million” voters at around 1:45 am Monday (1745 GMT Sunday) for coming out.
After voting Sunday, he said this year’s election was “the last piece of the puzzle to implement the principle of patriots ruling Hong Kong”.
“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.
The previous election was held at the peak of the huge, often violent, anti-government protests in 2019, recording a historic high of 71 percent turnout and delivering a landslide victory for the opposition camp.
The neighbouring SAR authorities overhauled the councils’ composition earlier this year. According to new rules announced in May, seats for direct election were reduced from 462 to 88, with the remaining 382 seats comprising members of three government-appointed committees, appointed members, and ex-officio members.
Candidates were required to seek nominations from the three government-appointed committees. No candidates from opposition-linked groups secured the green light to run, and over 70 percent of the directly elected candidates are committee members.
All election arrangements were able to fully reflect the principles of transparency, honesty and fairness, said David Lok, chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission when meeting the press on Monday morning.
Police arrested at least six people on Sunday. Three were activists from the League of Social Democrats — one of the city’s last remaining opposition groups — which had planned to stage a protest.
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”.
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.
The newly-elected DC members will begin their four-year term on January 1, 2024.
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