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Explainer | Hong Kong elections: debate over proposal to allow voting in mainland China, with critics raising fears of fraud, lack of scrutiny
- With 540,000 Hongkongers in Guangdong, some say allowing them to vote there makes sense
- Opposition camp fears difficulty campaigning, checking on polling stations, counting of votes
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If postponing the Legislative Council elections slated for September 6 was not controversial enough, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor followed up by suggesting a revamp of electoral arrangements. It included allowing Hongkongers based on the mainland to vote in Guangdong province, without having to return to the city.
The resurgence of Covid-19 cases provided Lam the reason to delay the elections by a year. She said on August 8 that going ahead would have made it hard for voters living away from the city to return, given pandemic restrictions in place. The health risks would also have put off vulnerable older voters from coming out to cast their ballots.
Her suggestion to allow polling stations in Guangdong, as well as priority queues for elderly voters, was hailed by pro-establishment politicians as long overdue. But opposition members objected immediately, and political scholars had reservations too, asking how polls on the mainland would be monitored, and if electoral fraud could be avoided.
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Why have polling stations in Guangdong?
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There are about 540,000 Hongkongers who are permanent residents in the southern Chinese province. Lam’s proposal will make it more convenient for them to vote there instead of having to return to Hong Kong to do so. She suggested having polling stations in the Greater Bay Area, the Chinese government’s scheme to link Hong Kong, Macau and nine other mainland cities into an integrated technological and economic powerhouse.
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