HONG KONG: Democrats Score Key Wins in Record-Turnout Poll

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Cheung Chui-Yung

HONG KONG, May 25 1998 (IPS) - Hong Kong pro-democracy figures have swept back into office in the first elections for the local legislature here Sunday, setting the stage for a small but vocal opposition in this autonomous region ruled by China.

Voting results on Monday afternoon showed candidates of the Democratic Party and its allies getting 13 seats in the new Legislative Council held on May 24, the first direct polls here since Hong Kong’s handover to China in July 1997.

Of the 13, nine of the seats won by pro-Democratic figures were among the 20 legislative slots up for direct election. The four other wins were in seats voted for by business and professional groups in a system of “functional constituencies”

But while the good showing of pro-democracy party candidates like Martin Lee, Emily Lau and Christine Loh was expected, the record high turnout of 53.29 percent among Hong Kong’s 2.8 million qualified voters was not.

Virtually all analysts and pollsters had predicted a poor turnout, noting that at least 80 percent of voters said they did not understand the complicated electoral system. Many also predicted low turnout due to torrential rains on voting day.

In the end, the 53.29 percent figure was much higher than the 35.8 percent turnout in 1995, when Hong Kong voted for the first time for its legislature under British colonial rule. The high turnout this time was part of the reason it took the Hong Kong election commission longer than usual to tally the votes.

Their good showing does not mean the Democratic Party members will exercise sizable clout in the Legislative Council, because the 40 other seats in the 60-member assembly were not filled by direct vote.

Still, analysts say the turnout and the victory of Democratic Party politicians reflects a desire by Hong Kong people for a stronger, local voice in the legislature at a time when economic problems seem to presage a more uncertain future.

“The high turnout rate reflected the electorate’s deeper sense of dissatisfaction with the government and the current situation of Hong Kong at large,” Stephen Tang, a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told IPS.

Dissatisfaction relates to rising unemployment which hit a record high of 3.9 percent as of end-April, falling property prices and huge salary cuts, said Tang, who has observed local elections for a decade now.

He added: “The voters came out with the hope that the newly elected legislative council members will voice their genuine concerns and aspirations to the SAR (Special Administrative Region) government.”

In short, Tang explained, “there is no doubt the government will face more pressure in tackling the economic crisis being felt both by the middle and working classes.”

Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-Hwa views the high turnout as a “historic and tremendous achievement” that showed the ‘one country, two systems” formula between China and Hong Kong could work.

The May 24 polls had come under fire for being exclusionary and loaded against opposition figures. Martin Lee, chairman of the Democratic Party, asked just before the vote: “How did a modern and sophisticated society like Hong Kong end up with such a preposterous system?”

Hong Kong’s electoral system allows 30 seats to be selected by professional groups in “functional constituencies” and 10 to be filled by an 800-member electoral college led by business groups. They were expected to be filled by mostly pro-Beijing candidates, critics said.

Lee had said Beijing’s aim in the complicated electoral system was to have “control” over Hong Kong.

Michael Suen, secretary for constitutional affairs of the Hong Kong government, concedes that the three-tier electoral system is not perfect. But he says it is part of a transition to a goal that is the “election of all members of the legislature by universal suffrage”.

“Democracy takes time, and it is like the making of red win,” Suen added.

The much-criticised system of proportional representation is in fact in use in many countries like Germany, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands, he pointed out.

Sunday’s poll is expected to rekindle debates on Hong Kong’s brand of participation in coming elections. The second Legislative Council election is scheduled for 2000, the election of a chief executive in 2002 by an electoral college, and another legislative poll in 2004.

Members of the Democratic Party have long advocated universal suffrage for the 2000 legislative polls and in the election for Hong Kong’s second chief executive.

The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), regarded as a pro-Beijing leftist party and the rival of the Democratic Party, says it does not object to a review of the pace of democracy at the end of this election, if the public wants it.

Whatever is said about the just-finished election, many say that the fact that the first multi-party election has taken place in the People’s Republic of China is something significant by itself.

Lee earlier said that despite its flaws, Hong Kong’s election marks the “first at least partially democratic elections” are held on Chinese soil since the Communist Party came to power in 1949.

The poll certainly scores political points for the Chinese government, which is keen to demonstrate its commitment to Hong Kong-style autonomy a year after the handover from the British.

For the Hong Kong government though, the key victories of politicians critical of Beijing means it likely to be dealing with a legislature that is not easily a rubber-stamp body.