In Pictures: 4,380 Hong Kong ‘patriots’ select powerful election committee, as ballot counting delayed by glitches

Vote counting in Hong Kong’s small-circle election committee race closed at 7.30 a.m. on Monday, over 13 hours after polls closed due to “human errors” and glitches. Sunday’s polls were the first since Beijing imposed an electoral revamp in March. A total of 4,380 of the city’s 4,800 eligible elites cast their ballot, whilst over 5,000 police officers were deployed to the streets.

The voters represented 0.06 per cent of the city’s population, though Chief Executive Carrie Lam hailed the “patriots only” polls as a “good foundation” for upcoming elections. A protest group, meanwhile, said they showed Beijing was “afraid of public opinion.”

The overhauled election committee is now empowered to appoint 40 of the city’s 90 lawmakers – the others will be chosen by special interest groups, leaving only 20 to be elected by the public. Next year, the committee will also select Hong Kong’s leader.

A total of 4,380 voters had cast a ballot by the time polls closed at 6pm on Sunday, indicating a turnout of about 90 percent, said Chair of the Electoral Affairs Commission Barnabas Fung. Three sectors saw 100 per cent turnout, including the legal sector with a total of 30 voters, the architecture sector with 55 voters, and the technology and innovation sector, with 54 voters.

Ballot counting began one hour later than scheduled due to “mishaps in the delivery of ballot boxes” to the central counting station at Wan Chai’s Convention and Exhibition Centre, but it did not interfere with ballot counting, Fung said. Election authorities also received a total of five complaints over voting arrangements, voting eligibility and over the typeface size used on ballots.

During the vote-counting, some candidates were heard shouting the slogan: “Support improving the electoral system, implement ‘patriots rule Hong Kong!'”

Some voters had to queue up for over an hour on Sunday morning at the Kowloon Park polling station, Fung said, as polling officers working for the first time with the electronic electoral roll had yet to familiarise themselves with the machines. There were also individuals who were not eligible voters that queued up at the station, mistakenly believing they were allowed to cast a ballot during Sunday’s polls, he said.

Results of the polls only began rolling in at about 3 a.m., as the scanners used for counting were not able to function as intended. Unable to hold up to the fatigue, some candidates left the convention centre before the results were even announced.

Fung apologised for the extended counting time, admitting there were human errors and other problems that occurred during the ballot box delivery and ballot counting processes. He said a detailed report will be submitted to the chief executive later.

364 seats for 412 candidates

A total of 412 candidates vied for 364 seats on the city’s 1,500-strong election committee on Sunday’s polls. The remaining 1,136 seats were either filled by appointment, by ex-officio members, or were automatically elected without competition within sub-sectors. Of the 40 sub-sectors, only 13 saw the number of nominated candidates exceed the number of seats to be filled.

Two candidates not considered part of the pro-establishment camps ran in the social welfare sector. Francis Chow, the chair of the Sai Kung District Council, lost. The other candidate – Tik Chi-yuen, founder of centrist party Third Side – won through drawing lots, as the number of votes he received was identical to that of two other candidates in the sector.

Voters turned up to polling stations early on Sunday, with turnout reaching close to 50 per cent by noon, then hitting 86 per cent by 5pm. While the city’s chief executive election committee used to see over 246,000 voters in 2016, now only 4,800 of the city’s elites were able to vote in the first polls since the electoral overhaul. In March, Beijing imposed legislation to ensure only “patriots” may govern Hong Kong.

The revamp of Hong Kong’s electoral system reduced democratic representation in the legislature, tightened control of elections and introduced a pro-Beijing vetting panel to select candidates. The Hong Kong government said the overhaul would ensure the city’s stability and prosperity. But the changes also prompted international condemnation, as they make it near-impossible for pro-democracy candidates to stand.

“This election will provide a good foundation for the next two,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam said as she toured the voting station at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on Sunday morning. The election committee will have the power to nominate as well as elect members of the next Legislative Council and Chief Executive, in December and in March respectively.

‘Pan-political approach’

“For a long time we had people who wanted to oppose China and cause chaos in Hong Kong enter the political system through open elections,” Lam said. “They took a pan-political approach in the legislature to oppose the [Hong Kong] government and the central people’s government. To an extent this has obstructed Hong Kong’s economic and social development.”

Most of the city’s opposition have been jailed, arrested, disqualified from elections, gone into self-exile or have left politics following the imposition of the national security law last June,

Lam added that the Vice Premier of China’s State Council Han Zheng told her during a Saturday meeting in Shenzhen that the election was to be conducted in accordance with the law, to implement “patriots” ruling Hong Kong.

Lam did not directly respond to a reporter’s question on whether she expressed interest about serving a second term as chief executive when talking to the Chinese official. She said her job at the meeting was merely to report to, and seek support from, the central government and not for discussing other personal goals.

Beijing’s office in Hong Kong extended its “warm congratulations” following the polls. They marked the city’s “fundamental shift from chaos to order” and “demonstrated the progressiveness and superiority of the revamped electoral system, and represented a major step forward in advancing democracy with Hong Kong characteristics,” the China Liaison Office said in a statement on Monday.

Police said they would deploy 5,000-6,000 officers in the city on Sunday to ensure that no disruption would occur at the polls. Officers were seen patrolling near the voting stations in Sha Tin and Kowloon Park, although only handful were spotting near the convention centre during the rain on Sunday evening.

Throughout the day, candidates including those from pro-establishment parties – the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions – greeted voters and the public at the five polling centres in Sha Tin, Tuen Mun, Kowloon Park, Tsuen Wan and Wan Chai.

New People Party lawmaker Regina Ip said the overhauled election system helped “talent” get elected. “Although the electorate is smaller, their quality has improved, and is more representative,” she told HK01.

Meanwhile, centrist party Third Side’s Tik chi-yuen, a candidate in the social welfare sector and one of two candidates who were not part of the pro-establishment camps, told reporters that the polls “were almost like a real election in atmosphere,” Stand News reported. He added that he believed those who were not part of the pro-government camps still had the space and opportunity to get elected.

‘Calling a deer a horse’

Although no-one from traditional pro-democracy political parties were part of Sunday’s polls, four members of the League of Social Democrats marched in protest from Hennessy Road towards the convention centre early in the day.

They were searched by police at the start of the march, and were surrounded by dozens of officers as they headed towards the polling station.

“Calling small-circle an ‘improvement’ is calling a deer a horse… Authorisation by public opinion must not be taken away,” their banner read. “After the election system ‘improvement’ by the National People’s Congress, the small circle election committee has become stinkier as ever,” the group said in a statement. “The Chinese Communist Party… is in fact afraid of public opinion.”

Veteran activist Tsang Kin-shing also marched with a prop barrier symbolising the city’s 47 democrats charged with allegedly breaching the national security law in February, in connection with a primary election last July.

Correction 10:40a.m.: A previous version of this story misstated that the ballot counting time lasted over 11 hours. It should be 13 hours.

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