Hong Kong sees record surge of voters since 2003 as 350,000 new people register after extradition bill protests

A record 350,000 Hongkongers have signed up to vote in the past two months amid calls from extradition bill protesters to oust pro-government politicians in the coming elections.

The news was a boost to the city’s opposition pan-democrats, who, according to analysts, stand a better chance to win seats in the district council elections in November.

Releasing the figures on Thursday, the Registration and Electoral Office said that more than 350,000 voter applications had been received in the latest round of a registration campaign that began in May. It was a record jump in new registrations since at least 2003. Last year, 81,363 people registered as voters. In 2017, there were 83,161 registrations.

This year’s response overwhelmed the office. Late last month, it said its email account operations were temporarily affected due to a significant increase in traffic as a large number of voter registration applications were emailed.

Past experience suggested people would always flock to register as voters following a large-scale pro-democracy campaign.

In 2004, 303,885 voters registered after half a million Hongkongers took to the streets in 2003 to protest against a government-proposed national security law, which critics said would curtail people’s civil liberties. The government was forced to shelve the bill.