An unexciting poll HK can be proud of
Polling day, when it came, was very much like the rest of the campaign - quiet, understated and lacking in excitement. The district council elections have, this time, failed to fire the public's imagination, this despite the fact that fewer candidates have been returned unopposed and many constituencies were hotly contested.
The full results will not be known until today. But it is at this stage possible to gauge the extent to which Hong Kong people have used these grass-roots elections to exercise their democratic rights. And the outcome is not as discouraging as it might first appear.
Yesterday's turnout, the key indicator as far as people's enthusiasm for voting is concerned, at more than 38 per cent, was lower than the record 44 per cent set at the last district council elections four years ago. That was widely expected. And it is easy to understand why the figure is smaller this time.
In 2003, Hong Kong had endured years of economic downturn and the traumatic Sars outbreak. Government proposals for national security laws had raised fears that our freedoms were about to be eroded. The elections took place a few months after the mass demonstration by 500,000 people on July 1. In such circumstances, it is not surprising that a record proportion of registered voters turned out to make their feelings felt through the ballot box.
The political climate this time is very different. The economy is booming and Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has been careful not to push ahead with any policy that is likely to spark widespread opposition. At the time of the last district council polls, there were strong hopes that democratic reforms were on the way. Little progress has since been made. But much to the disappointment of the pan-democrats, even this has failed to ignite public opinion. The question of democratic reforms may well become the focus of the Legislative Council elections next year. But they certainly did not prompt a high proportion of voters to flock to the polls yesterday.
This does not mean that Hong Kong people have lost their enthusiasm for democracy, however. Indeed, there is another figure from yesterday's vote that is worth considering. A record
1.149 million votes were cast - the highest for any district council election. This is a reflection of the growing number of registered voters, which was about half a million more than in 2003.
Hong Kong people are increasingly recognising the importance of at least registering to vote, even if many choose not to exercise that right for the election of district councillors who, after all, have a very limited role in policy-making. We can also take some comfort from the rather uncontroversial nature of this campaign. It would have been nice to have some higher-quality candidates and a higher profile for election debates. But with the exception of one violent attack on a campaign manager, which may or may not be related to the polls, this has been a fair and orderly election. That is something of which Hong Kong can be proud.
