As it happened: Hong Kong district council election ends after voting extended as a result of computer failure
- City’s 4.3 million registered voters could cast their ballots at more than 600 polling stations to decide 88 of 470 seats on the 18 councils
- Election was first since municipal-level bodies were overhauled to align them with Beijing’s principle that only ‘patriots’ should be in charge
Hongkongers trickled into polling stations for the city’s first “patriots-only” district council election on Sunday.
The city’s 4.33 million registered voters could cast their ballots at more than 600 polling stations to decide 88 of 470 seats in the new councils. The geographical seats were being contested by 171 candidates. Polling stations opened at 8.30am, with the original closing time of 10.30pm extended to midnight because of a computer failure.
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Polls open in Hong Kong’s new ‘patriots-only’ district council election
The election was the first since the municipal-level bodies were overhauled to align them with Beijing’s principle that only “patriots” should be in charge.
The city’s leader will appoint 179 councillors, and 2,532 members of district committees will decide another 176. Rural committee chairs will hold 27 ex officio seats.
Authorities embarked on an unprecedented campaign to encourage voting, launching an intensive advertising campaign, organising a weekend outdoor concert and providing HK$20,000 (US$2,560) in subsidies to individual centres for the elderly to help cover the cost of transporting residents to polling stations.
But observers suggested the absence of opposition candidates and many residents’ difficulty in understanding the changes to the election process could lower the turnout rate.
Reporting by Jeffie Lam, Natalie Wong, Lilian Cheng, Willa Wu, Kahon Chan, Harvey Kong, Jack Deng, Sophie Chew, Oscar Liu and Edith Lin.
