How Hong Kong’s pan-democrats failed to turn the tide of the leadership race

While critics question ‘lesser of two evils’ strategy, others say the election contributed to a civil awakening for the middle-aged

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Lines of would-be voters turned out for the civil referendum in 2014 – a stark contrast to the turnout at this year’s mock vote. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 9:31pm, 26 Mar 2017Updated: 11:25pm, 26 Mar 2017

Five years ago, winding queues of would-be voters emerged across Hong Kong for the pan-democratic camp’s civil referendum – a mock ballot giving fellow citizens a say in the chief executive election.

More than 222,990 people participated in the March 23 event, with an overwhelming 54.6 per cent – or 121,661 voters – casting blank ballots in protest of what they called a “small-circle election”.

A similar civil referendum held this year, however, failed to attract the same public interest, with just 65,106 participating. M ore than 91 per cent of voters opted for pro-establishment candidate John Tsang Chun-wah.

With participants forced to disclose personal details via the Telegram messaging app, the poor turnout was blamed on privacy concerns. But, undoubtedly, the conspicuous absence of any promotion from mainstream pan-democrats also had an impact.

The pan-democratic bloc entered representatives into the 2007 and 2012 chief executive elections, with political reform central to its campaigns.

But this year, the camp adopted an entirely new, albeit contentious approach by endorsing the candidate it saw as the “lesser of two evils”: Tsang.

How Hong Kong’s pan-democrats failed to turn the tide of the leadership race

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}While critics question ‘lesser of two evils’ strategy, others say the election contributed to a civil awakening for the middle-aged

While critics question ‘lesser of two evils’ strategy, others say the election contributed to a civil awakening for the middle-aged