Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Camp Adds Four to Legislature
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Elections in the geographic constituencies, which are conducted according to a one-man one-vote system. However, the electoral system and composition of the legislature confines them to a minority.
These gains and the high turnout stand in contrast to local and international press assessments of the vote. Some observers and political figures had hoped pro-democracy candidates would win closer to 30 seats.
Meanwhile, blame is being assigned for the tactics employed by the prodemocracy parties in two of five of Hong Kong’s geographical constituencies. An enormous last-minute surge of support for former Democratic Party Chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming derailed the candidacy of another independent pro-democracy candidate, Cyd Ho Sau-lan. Many people believe
HONG KONG – The day after Hong Kong’s legislative elections, results established that the pro-democracy camp had gained four seats, raising their tally to 25 in the legislature that will be sworn in October.
They will serve for the next four years.
According to official results, prodemocracy candidates won 18 seats in the geographical constituencies, and unexpectedly increased their tally in the undemocratic functional constituencies to seven. In addition, the government revised voter turnout numbers, raising the turnout percentage to over 55%, a new record.
Overall, pro-democracy candidates won 63% of the 1.78 million ballots cast the Democratic Party violated an agreement it had on Hong Kong Island to cooperate in a strategy that would lead to four pro-democracy candidates winning seats in the constituency. Instead, there are only three. In New Territories East, the strategy of combining almost all pro-democracy candidates on one list also failed to yield the hoped-for number of winners.
Yesterday, Beijing’s office of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs issued a statement saying that the elections were the “most democratic” in Hong Kong’s history and an “important realization” of the “one country, two systems” formula under which Beijing claims to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. In April, Beijing ruled that its approval would be required for further democratization.
