Most Hong Kongers ignored the elections for its Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2021 and did so once again on Sunday. Unlike in 2021, moderate democrats who pledged their allegiance to Beijing were absent from the ballots this year. The electoral system overhaul is apparent revenge by Beijing for the democracy movement.
On Sunday, the Hong Kong “patriots-only” election of the LegCo had a record-low turnout in the five geographical constituencies, with only 1.3 million people casting their ballots on the only seats that most Hong Kongers are eligible to vote for.
Blank and invalid votes were up 50 percent from the previous LegCo election.
This is the second that time the council has been formed under the so-called improved electoral system implemented in 2021, which in fact deprived the political rights of millions of Hong Kongers.
First of all, directly elected seats of the geographical constituencies have been reduced to only 20 from 35 in 2016. Before the 2021 overhaul, those seats formed half of the LegCo.
Candidates contesting the elections are also required to be nominated by pro-Beijing groups or groups linked to the Hong Kong authorities, and have to be vetted by a government-led committee for allegiance to Beijing.
Before the “patriots-only” arrangements, candidates could be nominated by 100 ordinary voters, although the authorities occasionally disqualified pro-democracy candidates.
Moreover, the overhauled system disenfranchised individual voters in several professional sectors of the functional constituencies and reintroduced the Electoral Commission seats, which were abolished in 2008. The functional constituencies and the Electoral Commission — which have electorates that are highly controlled by or affiliated with Beijing — fill 70 seats of the LegCo.
With no genuine competition or candidate debates, the elections have turned into little more than a mobilization exercise among pro-Beijing parties and candidates. The Hong Kong administration made desperate attempts to boost turnout to avoid embarrassment. From posters in crematoriums to perks for people who voted, the measures, as expected, had a marginal effect on getting out the vote. While the turnout percentage was higher than in 2021 given the invalidation of more than 330,000 voters, there is no way to reach the record of 2.2 million in 2016.
The “patriot candidates” had little interest in responding to current affairs, such as calling for accountability over the blaze at Wang Fuk Court that killed at least 159 people and displaced thousands. To make matters worse, social workers, who are assisting those grieving lost family members, were reportedly pressured by their superiors to persuade their clients to vote amid their sorrow and funeral preparations.
The authorities in Beijing and Hong Kong doubled down on national security rhetoric to silence criticism of the elections. Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong summoned representatives of international media and warned against reports that the fire and the elections were unfavorable to the authorities. It was the first time the office gave an explicit warning to international media firms and let the public know about it.
Apart from threatening the media, the territory’s agency against corruption arrested 11 people for calling for election boycotts and issued warrants for two Hong Kongers in exile.
The elections were an obvious example of how the Chinese Communist Party disrespects democracy, the rule of law and customs in places they control. Beijing’s “one country, two systems” model, which emphasizes sovereignty and control over freedoms, has crushed Hong Kong politically and economically in only two decades.
Hong Kong’s sluggish economy, with housing prices falling more than one-third from the peak, has also become a significant financial strain on ordinary citizens. The issues are a consequence of Beijing’s national security regime and Hong Kong’s decoupling from the West.
Hong Kongers have demonstrated the painful reality of living under Beijing’s autocracy.
Politicians in Taiwan should not overlook how dissenting voices in Hong Kong have been silenced and how moderate democrats have to promote the elections they cannot contest as a form of punishment.
Michael Mo is a doctoral candidate in politics at Newcastle University in the UK and a former Hong Kong district councilor.
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