The Legislative Council (LegCo) elections held on Sept. 12 left a sour taste in many people's mouths. The election was undemocratic because the voters could only elect half of LegCo's 60 members by universal suffrage.
Arrangements at the polling stations were chaotic: some were forced to close temporarily, turning voters away. The Democratic Party was criticized for its over-zealousness in appealing for votes for former leader Martin Lee (
In spite of the huge mobilization by Chinese authorities and their allies in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), pro-democracy candidates won 60 percent of the vote, securing 25 seats. In a genuine democracy, a group with 60 percent of the vote would form the ruling party.
The election attracted widespread media attention because of the huge concern expressed by the Chinese government. Fearing that the pro-democracy forces could win a majority, the Chinese authorities moved in to marshal the election strategy of the pro-Beijing and pro-business camp.
Chinese and SAR officials assisted in persuading pro-Beijing and pro-business candidates not to stand against each other. This happened in the New Territories East, New Territories West and Kowloon East constituencies.
In the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce's functional constituency, chamber vice-chairwoman Lily Chiang (蔣麗莉) was said to have been asked by the financial secretary, Henry Tang Ying-yen (唐英年), a former member of the Liberal Party, not to run, leaving the way open for Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung (林健鋒) of the Liberal Party to be elected unopposed.
Intervention by the Chinese government in Hong Kong elections is not new, but Beijing's paranoia over a pro-democracy victory led to unprecedented mobilization. Thousands of agents were reported to have been sent to the SAR to monitor the activities of pro-democracy politicians and to assist the pro-Beijing camp.
Within the pro-Beijing alliance, hatchets were buried and votes for candidates in the geographical constituency of Kowloon East were allocated with scientific precision.
In the New Territories East constituency, when opinion polls showed Liberal Party chairman James Tien (
The amazing organization, coordination and collaboration of the pro-Beijing camp was an eye-opener. To the pro-democracy camp, their opponents were the Chinese Communist Party.
With unlimited influence and resources, the intervention of the Chinese government in the LegCo elections produced a remarkable result. This involvement was a violation of the "one country, two systems" principle, but most people chose to turn a blind eye to the transgressions of Beijing.
The pro-democracy camp was criticized for lacking cohesion and sharing nothing but blind opposition to anything proposed by the administration of Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
But many commentators ignored the fact that most pro-democracy LegCo members supported many bills and public expenditure proposals proposed by the administration. Their major disagreement with Tung was over issues relating to democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
In spite of the controversies, it was encouraging to see a record voter turnout rate of 55.63 percent, which showed that the people wanted to play an active part in the territory's affairs.
But while the central and SAR governments may be happy with the result, they must be angry and embarrassed by the scandals on election day.
Many staff at the polling stations were inexperienced and did not know how to handle the crisis. A number of polling stations ran out of ballot boxes, and in at least one station, cardboard boxes were used.
The number of complaints seriously undermined the election's credibility.
The chairman of the Electoral Affairs Commission, Justice Woo Kwok-hing (胡國興), apologized for the string of errors, but failed to explain the many flaws and vote-counting discrepancies.
To protect the integrity of elections, Tung should appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate how and why so many things went wrong.
The inquiry must be open and transparent, and should make observations and recommendations on whether the election was conducted fairly, who should be held responsible for blunders and how procedures can be improved.
Woo will submit a report to Tung within three months, but it is not good enough for the judge to investigate himself.
The Hong Kong community demands an independent inquiry into the election fiasco, which has cast a giant shadow over the entire election and has reduced the SAR to an international laughingstock.
Looking to the future, the fight for direct elections in 2007 and 2008 will continue.
We will try to convince
Beijing that Hong Kong's people
want the right to elect their
government.
We hope that all newly elected LegCo members understand the wishes and aspirations of the people and will have the courage and decency to reflect them honestly to the leaders in Beijing.
Emily Lau is a Hong Kong Legislative Council member and convener of the Frontier party.
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