Hong Kong elections: DAB leader Starry Lee offers to quit over landslide defeat and then calls on government to reflect on its work

The head of Hong Kong’s largest pro-establishment party, reeling from a landslide defeat in Sunday’s district council elections, has had her offer to resign rejected by its other leaders.

Starry Lee Wai-king, chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, called on the embattled government to deeply reflect on its work in restoring law and order after more than five months of increasingly violent protests in the city but sidestepped questions on their future relations.

The DAB fielded 181 candidates in Sunday’s poll, which had been seen as a barometer on how Hongkongers felt about the months-long political crisis gripping the city, but won just 21 seats, compared with having 117 incumbents before the poll. The opposition pan-democrat camp took 347 of the 452 council seats up for grabs.

Speaking to the media on Monday morning, Lee and six other party leaders bowed to apologise to their supporters for the drubbing, the biggest defeat in the DAB’s history.

“Drastic changes have appeared in the city for the past five months, with violence and social unrest showing no signs of abating,” she said. “We understand that the public is discontented with the situation and worried about the future.”