London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 29, 2025

Beijing’s overhaul ‘not about getting people out to vote’ in Hong Kong poll

Beijing’s overhaul ‘not about getting people out to vote’ in Hong Kong poll

Beijing will brush aside low turnout, focus on new lawmakers’ diversity and ability to get Legco to work, analysts say.

Hours before polling stations across Hong Kong closed at 10.30pm on Sunday, it was a foregone conclusion that voter turnout for the Legislative Council election might sink to a record low since the city returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The overall turnout was 30.2 per cent, the lowest since direct elections were introduced in 1991.

Top officials and pro-establishment heavyweights spent recent days managing expectations, playing down the significance of voter turnout for the first poll since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system to ensure only “patriots” ran Hong Kong.

They also said it would be pointless to compare the turnout with previous elections because so much had changed.

With the revamp, voters in geographical constituencies across Hong Kong had to pick only a minority of lawmakers.

Legco has been expanded from 70 to 90 seats, but the number of directly elected lawmakers has been slashed from 35 to 20. The biggest group of 40 lawmakers is from the powerful new Election Committee constituency, and 30 others from mainly trade-based functional constituencies.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai on Saturday said the government had “set no target” for the turnout and rejected remarks from Western countries that low voter participation would indicate Beijing’s revamp of the electoral system had failed.

Maria Tam Wai-chu, vice-chairwoman of the Basic Law Committee which advises Beijing on Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, said on Saturday that a turnout of about 30 per cent would be “pretty good”. She thought it would be wrong to use turnout as a yardstick to assess the success or failure of the election.

Voters leave the polling station at Hennessy Road Government Primary School in Wan Chai.


Hong Kong was still a British colony when direct elections were first introduced in 1991 and the voter turnout for the Legco election that year was 39.1 per cent. The turnout dipped in 1995 to 35.8 per cent.

The turnout was between 43.6 per cent and 53 per cent in subsequent Legco polls, with a record 58.3 per cent in the last election, in 2016.

But did Beijing care if Hongkongers came out to vote on Sunday? The answer is yes and no.

Political observers said while Beijing would have liked a high turnout, it would argue that the composition of the revamped legislature and the performance of the new batch of lawmakers were more important.

A Xinhua commentary, published on Sunday night, said Hong Kong voters had blocked the attempts of anti-China forces to sabotage the election through their concrete actions. It said the turnout for the Election Committee constituency was more than 90 per cent and for a dozen functional constituencies it was over 50 per cent.

Two weeks ago, Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, urged Hongkongers to vote.

“It’s not just a vote for their preferred candidates, but also a vote of confidence in ‘one country, two systems’,” he said, referring to the governing principle for Hong Kong.


Using the Chinese phrase “five lights and 10 colours”, he also praised the wide range of candidates and highlighted the presence of an electrician and a bus driver among the 153 candidates.

He said Beijing looked forward to seeing people from across the political spectrum in the city’s establishment.

Analysts, however, argued that political ideology, not the candidates’ occupation, place of birth or age, was the proper measure of diversity.

Sunday’s election was also the first since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 in which all seats were contested. With mainstream opposition parties staying out and Beijing said to be keen to avoid walkover victories, the pro-establishment camp reportedly coordinated to ensure a competition for every seat.

Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of semi-official think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said Beijing did not pin its hopes on a high turnout, even though it would have been pleased to see a “reasonably high” one and had urged the government to do its best to get people out to vote.

“Beijing has been encouraging supporters of the pro-establishment camp to vote so as to counter the opposition’s attempts to discredit the election,” he said.

“But extending the participation of voters wasn’t Beijing’s intention in overhauling Hong Kong’s electoral system. I think Beijing is satisfied that the major strategic goals of its revamp, such as ensuring effective governance and patriots ruling the city, have been achieved.”

Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political scientist at Chinese University, said Beijing would be embarrassed if Sunday’s turnout was significantly lower than in the past.

But he added: “Beijing will cite the diversity of the backgrounds of those returned and the performance of the new legislature, such as ensuring effective governance and solving livelihood issues, to justify the overhaul of the electoral system.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
×