Polling stations opened yesterday in Hong Kong district elections that are seen as a showdown between pro-Beijing and democratic candidates months after a mass protest against the government.
District council elections typically grapple with local issues, but observers say pro-Beijing politicians who are key government allies could face trouble this year due to massive anger against Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
Some analysts predicted that disgruntled voters would turn out in droves to express their fury at the government by electing opposition candidates.
Four hours after polling stations opened, about one-tenth of some 2.4 million registered voters had cast their ballots to fill 326 contested seats on 18 District Councils. The figure was up 28 percent from the 191,669 voters within the first four hours of the 1999 election.
Three hours after polling stations opened, about 160,000 of some 2.4 million registered voters had cast their ballots to fill 326 contested seats on 18 District Councils.
The figure was up 29 percent from the 123,806 voters within the first three hours of the 1999 election. The polls will close at 10:30pm, but it's uncertain when the preliminary results would be available.
Calls for faster democratic reforms have been growing since 500,000 people marched on July 1 against a proposed anti-subversion law.
The huge protest threw Tung's government into the biggest crisis since he was hand-picked by Beijing to run the former British colony. Tung was forced to back down on the measure.
Before the July 1 rally, the territory's top pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, or DAB, was expected to emerge the biggest winner in yesterday's election, with its strong grassroots network and focus on district work.
But the party, which initially backed Tung's plan to enact the law, might now suffer a setback from the pro-democracy candidates, said Joseph Cheng, professor of politics at the City University of Hong Kong.
A pre-election survey by Baptist University showed that DAB's popularity had plunged since the march, with public dissatisfaction against the party surging to 74 percent from 53 percent during the 1999 district councils election.
Last time, the opposition Democratic Party won 86 seats, while the DAB took 83.
But the big test for DAB is the Legislative Council elections next September, when the people would be allowed to pick half of the 60 legislative seats, as opposed to 24 last time. The rest will be chosen by special interest groups.
Party bosses have said that losses at yesterday's contest would force them to change strategy, which would likely mean less support for Tung's government -- further hampering the rule of the already highly unpopular leader.
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