Pro-democracy parties made smaller than expected gains in Hong Kong elections, which were seen as a referendum on the territory's Beijing-backed rulers, results released yesterday showed.
Democratic leaders expressed disappointment at their performance in Sunday's poll, despite securing a majority of the popular vote in an election marked by the highest-ever turnout in the former British colony.
The pro-democracy camp won a convincing 18 of the 30 legislative council seats which are chosen by the territory's 3.2 million voters, picking up 58.6 percent of ballots cast.
But pro-Beijing parties retained control of the council. The remaining 30 council seats are reserved for so-called functional constituencies representing mainly the business community and chosen by just 200,000 voters.
Calling the election "open and fair," Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
"This is a good election result. It was held in a fair, open and transparent manner and we are looking forward to working with the members of the new legislature," he said.
The election was fought against the backdrop of increasingly vocal calls for full democracy in the territory and efforts by Beijing to dampen such aspirations -- because of fears that a rush towards democracy would unsettle China.
The pro-democracy camp in total secured 25 seats on the 60-seat council, up from the 22 it previously held but down on projections of 28 or 29.
Pro-Beijing parties and independents who normally support them held the remaining seats, apparently undermining the democracy camp's case that voters would punish Beijing for ruling out fully democratic elections in 2007.
"I broke into tears" after hearing we had not won control, a defiant Yeung Sum (
However Yeung remained defiant, calling the result a "big step forward" and saying some good had come from the election.
"[The result] simply demonstrated that the majority of the people decided that they still want democracy."
China hailed the polls as the "most democratic" in Hong Kong's history. It cautioned lawmakers to "be loyal to their vows and seriously carry out their work ... and bear in mind the overall and long-term interest of China as well as Hong Kong."
Beijing had tried to sway voters with economic incentives and patriotic events including a visit by the country's Olympic team.
Critics also claim it orchestrated a smear campaign involving allegations of sex and property scandals involving democrats.
The election was seen as a referendum on the city's sentiment towards Beijing following 14 months of turmoil when the Chinese leadership was accused of interfering in the running of the city.
Results were delayed when electoral officials ordered a recount of ballots cast on Hong Kong Island, following allegations by pro-democracy candidates that rules had been breached.
Analysts blamed the poorer than expected result on the democrats' poor election strategy.
"The deck is stacked against them," said Paul Harris, politics and government associate professor at Lingnan University. But he said parties had not used the complicated electoral system to their favor and had fielded the wrong combinations of candidates.
Some 55.6 percent of the 3.2 million registered voters turned out, the highest number of ballots ever cast in any election in Hong Kong.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS