Voting in Hong Kong
Security law casts shadow on parties’ unofficial primaries
Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents defied concerns about social distancing and a new security law to vote in two-day primaries held by pro-democracy opposition parties.
More than 580,000 people had voted electronically as of 9 p.m. Sunday, more than triple the original target and amounting to more than 13% of registered voters, Au Nok Hin, one of the organizers, said at a news briefing. Results are due today.
“Hong Kong people just made a miracle by telling the world that more democratic candidates should join the elections,” Au said.
Opposition groups were hoping to attract at least 170,000 voters to the unofficial primaries to select district candidates for September’s Legislative Council election. Au said the electronic system closed at 9 p.m. but that there might be some more data uploading. Some people in line before then were still waiting for a paper ballot, so the final number could still rise.
The opposition hopes to ride a decisive victory in last November’s district council elections to secure a majority in the legislature that would give it the power to block Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s agenda — and even theoretically force her to resign by rejecting her budget proposals. However, the new security law has compounded risks that the Beijing-backed government will disqualify pro-democracy candidates to keep them from winning enough seats.
Voting on Saturday at the 250 stations across the city went relatively smoothly, despite some minor scuffles, Radio Television Hong Kong quoted Au as saying.
Secretary for Mainland and Constitutional Affairs Erick Tsang on Thursday suggested that participation in the primary could run afoul of the law. If convicted by the courts, violators would be barred from seeking or holding public office for an unspecified period. Another top Hong Kong official last month advocated for the invalidation of candidates who expressed opposition to the security legislation, which is raising questions about the city’s autonomy from China.
Tsang said planning and participating in primaries could violate the law’s articles of secession, subversion and collusion, as well as its Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Conduct) Ordinance. Though democrats rebuffed the government’s remarks and continued canvassing support for the primary, they also worried that authorities’ suggestions of illegality — and a warning that district council offices shouldn’t be used as polling stations — would dampen voter turnout over the weekend.
“Surely that’s our worry, whether the new national security law will deter people from coming out to participate in a legally organized and lawful activity,” legal scholar and organizer Benny Tai said at a briefing last week. He argued that the primary was not an act of “secession” or “collusion” because it didn’t have an agenda to split the country and wasn’t sourcing funds externally.
On Friday, police searched the offices of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute and seized its computers, Au said Saturday. They had a warrant and didn’t make any arrests, he said. The institute is a widely cited pollster helping the pro-democracy movement with the primaries.
Voting was delayed until noon Saturday as a result of the raid, the organizers said. Police were seen visiting some of the polling stations.
A police spokeswoman said officers from the cybersecurity crime bureau conducted the search after receiving complaints from members of the public about leaked information.
Hong Kong, which is seeing a spike in locally transmitted coronavirus cases, has also reimposed social-distancing restrictions that took effect Saturday and might have dissuaded some residents from coming out to vote.
Pan-democrat organizers held media briefings in the past week to bolster support and appeal for funds to cover expenses, but as of Friday had achieved only half their monthlong crowd-funding goal of $450,000. Candidates set up street booths in their districts in a last-ditch effort to secure votes.
The government has blocked nine candidates from running because of their support for Hong Kong independence and self-determination since 2016, when it first took the then-unprecedented step of banning politicians from running because of their political views.