Over 80 per cent of young Hongkongers have little interest in joining local care teams or government-appointed committees, which authorities see as playing a critical role in district-level governance, a survey has found.
The survey, conducted by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG), also revealed that the city’s youth does not know much about recent government efforts to “improve governance at district level.”
HKFYG interviewed 526 people aged 18 to 34 from September 28 to October 2 by handing out street questionnaire.
Asked to grade their knowledge of the District Council electoral overhaul, 22 per cent of respondents said they knew nothing at all.
Plans to overhaul the District Council elections were unveiled 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.
Constituency boundaries were redrawn, the opposition were shut out, voting hours were slashed by an hour, and each local council is to be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.
According to HKFYG’s survey, 295 of those they surveyed were registered voters, among whom 15.9 per cent said they would “definitely vote” in the District Council election, while 31. 5 per cent said they would “probably vote,” and 45. 9 per cent said they probably or definitely would not vote.
The ballot on December 10 will mark the first since the system overhaul. Government officials have been busy promoting the election and urging the public, especially civil servants, to vote. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang said on TVB on Sunday that authorities were considering going door-to-door to promote voting on the day.
HKFYG found out that nearly 80 per cent of interviewees agreed that “local affairs are closely related to you,” and they cared most about transportation, environmental hygiene, security and health care.
However, only 17.9 per cent said they were interested in joining the three committees. A university student told the NGO he had not heard any of the committee members’ names before participating in the survey and that the committees sounded strange to him.
Another interviewee told the NGO that she while she was an active volunteer at the district level, she did not know any members of the three committees and consequently thought it would be hard to run in the District Council race. Candidates were required to obtain at least three nominations from each of the three committees to run, something that opposition party members were not able to do, shutting them out from the recently restricted race.
In addition, 19.6 per cent young people interviewed expressed interest in joining the care teams, which were set up following the 2022 Policy Address to support the government’s district work.
The District Services and Community Care Teams are responsible for organising “caring activities” and promoting community building, targeting low-income residents and the elderly. Their works is overseen by the Home Affairs Department.
There are a total of 452 care teams, each one representing one sub-district in Hong Kong’s 18 districts. Each care team consists of eight to 12 members appointed by pro-establishment groups, who were selected by the government to run the teams.
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