Hong Kong voters are rational and by-election result was expected, says Beijing’s former top man in city Wang Guangya
Former official in charge of local affairs says pan-democratic camp only have themselves to blame for poll defeat
The pro-establishment camp’s historic victory in a Hong Kong legislative by-election on Sunday showed voters are “rational” and that excessive political wrangling could be “unfavourable” to the city’s well-being, according to a former top Beijing official in charge of local affairs.
Wang Guangya, who was director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office from 2010 until last year, said the pan-democratic camp only had themselves to blame after failing to regain their power to veto proposals put forward by their rivals in the legislature.
The Legislative Council by-election was held to fill four of six seats vacated by pro-democracy lawmakers when they were disqualified for improper oaths of office in 2016.
While pan-democrats Au Nok-hin and Gary Fan Kwok-wai won in the Hong Kong Island and New Territories East constituencies respectively, disqualified legislator Edward Yiu Chung-yim lost in Kowloon West and Paul Zimmerman fell in the architectural, surveying, planning and landscape functional constituency.
Yiu was the first pro-democracy candidate to be defeated by a pro-Beijing rival in a Legco by-election for a geographical seat, since Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.