Hong Kong district council election: authorities say 1.5 million posters, leaflets printed for publicity blitz, but shy away from sharing cost
- Authorities offer breakdown of promotion drive for first ‘patriots-only’ district council poll last month, which drew record-low turnout of 27.5 per cent
- Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau says ‘innovative’ efforts achieved ‘desired effect’, as lawmakers call for disclosure of total costs
More than 1.5 million posters and leaflets were printed and nearly 99,000 bunting rows were hung up in a publicity drive for Hong Kong’s revamped district council poll last month, authorities have said without revealing the total cost.
The December 10 poll was the first to be held since the government overhauled the district councils earlier last year to align with Beijing’s “patriots ruling Hong Kong” policy direction, but drew a record-low turnout of 27.54 per cent.
The revamp drastically cut the number of seats returned by the popular vote from almost 95 per cent to 19 per cent, as well as reintroducing appointed positions.
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The Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau on Friday also stressed the “innovative” efforts had achieved the “desired effect”, even as lawmakers called for the disclosure of the total cost of the promotion drive.
“The promotional work for this election utilised a lot of diverse and innovative methods, which were widely reported by the media,” the bureau wrote in a paper submitted to the Legislative Council.
“The ability to generate discussions was also quite pronounced and it also greatly raised society’s level of concern towards the district council election. The overall effect is ideal and it has even reached the overall goals of promoting the election.”
The paper marks the first time the government has provided a breakdown of the promotion blitz.
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But authorities stopped short of revealing how much money was spent on convincing residents to vote.
Official figures published on Friday showed the government printed more than 1.5 million posters and leaflets, hung up nearly 99,000 bunting rows and almost 19,500 banners, as well as set up about 4,000 adverts on various public transport services.
Authorities placed 359 large billboards at locations such as major thoroughfares, shopping centres and government premises.
The bureau boosted its publicity efforts on social media, managing to reach 1.2 million users daily for a total coverage of more than 38 million users.
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The paper also cited the “Night Vibes District Council Election” and its use of promotional booths on 13 occasions at government-organised night markets as examples of “fun” and “down-to-earth” approaches, in addition to nearly 170 information event sessions held ahead of the poll.
In the run-up to the election, Deputy Chief Secretary Warner Cheuk Wing-hing said the government had “gone all out” and “exhausted all means” with its promotion drive.
Lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen, chairman of the Third Side centrist party, on Saturday called for the government to reveal how much public money was spent to promote the poll, describing the drive as the “largest effort” he had ever seen.
He expressed concern over whether authorities had considered the cost effectiveness of the campaign, noting the turnout had not increased under the concerted effort.
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The legislator also said he hoped the government would disclose its reasoning for ramping up its promotions.
“Doing 100,000 things must be better than doing 10,000 things, but for you to go from 10,000 to 100,000, how much is the cost effectiveness of this difference?” he said. “The government will need to explain.”
Fellow lawmaker Chan Yung, chairman of the Legislative Council subcommittee discussing the document, defended the massive promotional efforts as necessary but said he would follow up on the price tag of the campaign to see if it could be made more cost effective.
The turnout on December 10 marked a record low since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, even with an extension of polling station hours in response to a software glitch.
