The Hong Kong government will set up a special taskforce to monitor and debunk misinformation on the day of the “patriots-only” District Council race.
Speaking on a TVB news programme on Sunday, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang said that the authorities had studied potential hindrances to the election process, including “rumour-mongers” who may smear the campaign and publicise misinformation.
“There might be people who try to attack and smear us, or even spread misinformation and rumours,” Tsang said in Cantonese.
“This situation has happened before,” he added without elaborating.
The taskforce will monitor publicly available information and make instant clarifications shall falsehoods arise on election day, he said.
The District Council elections will take place on December 10. It will be the first since the government announced plans to overhaul the District Council elections in May 2023 to ensure only “patriots” were elected, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019.
The number of seats chosen democratically by the public were slashed from 452 to 88 – reducing the power of public votes to a fifth. The rest are to be chosen by the city’s leader and government-appointed committees.
Tsang on Sunday reiterated that the electoral overhaul would be beneficial to residents’ “personal interests” amid concerns that the public’s enthusiasm towards the district race had waned.
When asked if the significant drop of publicly voted seats might have an effect on voter turnout, Tsang said that the reduction had not impacted the democracy of the district body.
“The number of directly elected seats does not necessarily relate to democracy,” he said. “Deliberation, meeting, and consultation are what reflect democracy.”
He added that he was personally optimistic towards voter turnout, calling the situation during the 2021 Legislative Council election – also overhauled to reduce democratic representation – “desirable.”
According to government figures, the 2021 LegCo election saw a turnout of 30.2 per cent, the lowest since the first LegCo election in 1998. Turnout was especially low among young people.
Mainland-based voters
Tsang on Sunday also said that around 4,500 voters who reside in mainland China had registered to vote at polling stations near the city’s border that the government had set up.
Authorities announced earlier that eligible voters living in mainland China can cast their ballot at two schools in Sheung Shui, the New Territories neighbourhood that is one train stop from the city’s border control points. Up to 38,000 people will be able to vote at the stations.
Tsang said that the measure targeted voters who would return to the mainland quickly after voting. The actual number of mainland-based Hongkongers voting could be higher on polling day, as some of them may return to their own district to vote, he added.
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