The Social Welfare Department has “invited” 215 elderly community centres across Hong Kong to provide special services to help seniors cast their ballots in the “patriots-only” District Council election on December 10.
Each centre that does so will receive a one-off allowance of HK$20,000, the Labour and Welfare Bureau announced on Facebook on Saturday.
Such services included arranging transportation and staff to assist elderly people and their carers travel to and from polling stations. Hong Kong’s elderly community centres are operated by NGOs with funding from the Social Welfare Department.
Over 170 elderly centres have accepted the government’s invitation, the bureau said. It means that authorities will spend HK$3.4 million for such measures.
“The Labour and Welfare Bureau and the Social Welfare Department have always been concerned about the needs of the elderly, ” the bureau said, reminding all seniors to vote for their “ideal candidates” on the election day.
Local media reported during previous elections that some elderly people residing at care homes, who were not familiar with their local candidates, were taken by bus to polling stations and asked to vote for specific pro-establishment candidates. They were allegedly given small cards with the names of the candidates to remind them who to vote for.
Lawmakers and social workers have raised concern over elderly community centres being invited to provide “convenient measures” for senior citizens.
Citing an anonymous source from the social welfare sector, Ming Pao reported on Sunday that front-line social workers were hesitant to provide such services. The source added that some organisations felt pressured to participate because people from the government had reached out to board members or directors of some NGOs to “give a helping hand.”
Tik Chi-yuen, a lawmaker representing the social welfare sector, told Ming Pao that while the government knew that providing buses may be controversial, it had introduced such measures for the coming election.
Tik said the government would “go to any lengths” to push voter turnout.
Pro-establishment lawmaker Doreen Kong told NowTV on Sunday that the government should ensure a fair election.
“[The government] should ensure that elderly people choose to go voluntarily, and should make sure those people have full mental capacity [to vote]…. The centres should also be sensitive as to whether they will affect the elderly people’s voting preference when they walk them to the polling station,” Kong said in Cantonese.
Lau Oi-sze, director general of NGO Lok Sin Tong, said on NowTV that the organisation ran two elderly centres serving around 1,200 people and had applied for the allowance to provide services on election day.
Lau said around 10 per cent of the elderly people using Lok Sin Tong’s elderly centres had asked for assistance voting in previous elections, and she thought the allowance would be helpful for the NGO offer extra services.
Voter turnout
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.
In the last District Council election, around 2.94 million Hongkongers cast their ballots – 71.2 per cent of the electorate – a record high turnout not just for District Council elections, but any election in the history of Hong Kong.
Government officials have been frequently asked about voter turnout for the coming ballot, the first since the electoral overhaul.
While officials have said that an election should not be assessed simply by the turnout rate, the government has introduced various initiatives to encourage voter turnout, including hosting outdoor music performances, a drone show, and a Security Bureau-themed exhibition to enhance the election atmosphere.
The city’s leader John Lee and the Chief Secretary Eric Chan have also urged Hongkongers – especially civil servants – to vote in the “patriots only” race on Sunday.
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