All quiet on Hong Kong’s election front: talk of one-horse race, but no sign yet of serious contenders to be city leader
- Beijing stays quiet on favoured candidate, but more now believe it prefers a no-contest race
- Former leader Leung Chun-ying said to be poised for comeback, but no ruling out bid by current city leader Carrie Lam yet
Hong Kong’s upcoming election for its next chief executive is turning out to be the quietest since the city’s handover to mainland China in 1997.
If Hongkongers’ election-related searches online are any indication, interest has fallen flow in comparison to the 2017 race, according to data from Google Trends. The information could potentially reflect a pervasive indifference to the race, which was postponed by six weeks to May 8.
With only a day to go before the two-week nomination period starts on Sunday, no incumbent official or political heavyweight has stepped forward and Beijing has remained quiet about its preferred choices.
On Friday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor headed to Shenzhen to meet Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, to discuss the race, the Post has learned. But the incumbent city leader has made no indication of whether she will seek a second term.
Lam previously fuelled talk that she may not pursue re-election when she said last Sunday that it would be “up to the next administration” to probe the government’s handling of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
Hong Kong’s next leader will be chosen by 1,463 members of the powerful Election Committee which were part of Beijing’s electoral overhaul to ensure that only “patriots” run the city.