On Sunday, Hong Kong held its district council elections, as protests paused to allow the elections to proceed peacefully. At the time of writing, the pro-democracy camp has won 278 seats, while pro-establishment candidates have won 42 (South China Morning Post, 25 Nov).

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Pro-democracy win majority seats at district council elections

On Sunday, Hong Kong held its district council elections. According to an article on South China Morning Post (SCMP) (24 Nov), the councils are mostly advisory, deal with municipal matters and have little power. For the first time, all 452 seats were contested by 1,090 candidates. There were 4.1mil registered voters, a 1mil increase from four years ago. The city was peaceful as Hongkongers went about their usual activities, and it was even calm at Polytechnic University in Hung Hom, which saw violence just last Sunday – only a few protesters are still holding out on the campus as police wait for them to emerge.

Further in an article on the SCMP (25 Nov), by 7am this morning, the pro-democracy camp has won 278 seats, gaining majority in at least 12 of the 18 district councils, while pro-establishment candidates have won just 42. Independent candidates not endorsed by either camps have won 24 seats.

In an article on CNBC (24 Nov), Hong Kong’s democrats celebrated the landslide, while some winning candidates said the result was similar to a vote of support for the demonstrators, which could turn up the heat on Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive Carrie Lam.

This year the elections had a record turnout of 2.94mil voters, i.e. 71.2% of registered voters, up from the 47% in 2015 (SCMP, 25 Nov).

Source: Macquarie Research - 25 Nov 2019