Hong Kong’s district council elections: how the opposition camp plans to give their pro-establishment rivals a fierce fight
- In the first of a four-part series looking ahead to November’s district council elections, we examine what is at stake for both sides
- Pro-Beijing candidates fear severe backlash for supporting extradition bill that sparked months of turmoil, but the pan-democrats’ bid to flood the polls with candidates may come to nothing if election is called off
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp is going all out to contest November’s district council elections, with plans to field a record number of close to 450 candidates.
Its aim is to prevent a repeat of 2015’s elections, when more than 60 pro-establishment candidates won unopposed.
Ongoing anti-government protests, now in their fifth month and increasingly violent, have bolstered the pro-democracy camp’s hopes of doing better this year.
The councils range in size from 13 seats in Wan Chai to 45 in Yuen Long. Wan Chai’s district council has the most skewed power balance, with only one pro-democracy member. The situation is more even in Sha Tin, where the council has 19 from each camp and a centrist member.
Our tactic is to try and field as many people in the 452 constituencies as possible
“Our tactic is to try and field as many people in the 452 constituencies as possible, no matter whether they are from pro-democracy parties or our district-level allies and fresh faces,” said Andrew Chiu Ka-yin, convenor of Power for Democracy, a group which has been encouraging cooperation in the camp.