When more votes mean defeat: How these Hong Kong district council veterans lost their constituents

Veterans from both the pan-democratic and pro-establishment camps might have won more votes from their constituents than in the last election – but they still lost in Sunday’s district council elections.

This was due mostly to the effects of mobilisation on the ground and at times the opposite phenomenon.

An analyst said the fall of pro-democracy old hands was to do with “targeted” mobilisation by the rival camp. But this meant diverting resources from other areas held by pro-Beijing veterans. The diversion coupled with over-confident members in that camp meant smaller vote shares, which sometimes led to defeat for candidates.

Pro-establishment parties received 529,000 votes for 191 seats, while the pan-democratic camp, including Occupy protesters-turned-candidates, won 476,000 votes and 94 seats.

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 Initial checks by the South China Morning Post showed that they did not lose because their voter base disappeared. Indeed, in some cases they collected more votes than in the previous elections in 2011.