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Primary turnout enables opposition to inch towards gaining majority in Legco polls, activist says
by Kimmy Chung (SCMP)
Published: 4:05pm, 13 Jul, 2020
Co-organiser of weekend electoral exercise Benny Tai says the significance of the turnout involves establishing an important decision-making mechanism in civil society.
Opposition camp held the primary to whittle down their list of Legco candidates from 52 to those with the best chance of achieving a majority.
More than 610,000 Hong Kong voters, who took part in the opposition camp’s primary over the weekend, have sent a strong political message to authorities and enabled the pro-democracy bloc to move a step closer to achieving a majority in September’s Legislative Council elections, according to an activist.
Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a law scholar at the University of Hong Kong and a co-organiser of the camp’s electoral exercise, said on Monday the miraculous turnout – representing more than 13.8 per cent of registered voters and about 35 per cent of voters who supported the camp in district council elections last year – greatly exceeded their target.
Long queues were spotted outside polling stations across the city over the weekend, as
– a total of 592,211 votes were cast via a mobile app
– and about 21,000 paper ballots were cast in 240 polling stations during the two-day weekend primary.
The opposition camp held the polls to whittle down their list of Legco candidates from 52 to those with the best chance of achieving “35-plus” in the 70-seat legislature in September.
Running too many opposition candidates, they believed, would play into the hands of pro-establishment rivals by splitting the votes.
“It is similar to a protest march joined by 600,000 … just that people were scattered across 240 places and gathered in different time slots, expressing their will in an ultimately peaceful and rational way,” Tai told a radio programme on Monday.
“Under the national security law [imposed on Hong Kong recently by Beijing], protest, marches and assemblies have been banned, but the people are wise and can express their views this way. So, how should [authorities] govern in future?”
The national security legislation came into effect on June 30, a day before activists defied a police ban on the annual July 1 march. Police had banned the gathering citing public health risks amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Benny Tai noted that Hong Kong activists had been organising “civic voting” since 2012.
– In 2014, a record 790,000 people voted in a poll as part of the Occupy Central campaign, when they were asked to choose from a series of proposals on how the city’s leader should be elected.
– But he said most people voted online at that time, while the latest primary made history as all of the voting was done in various polling stations. All voters of the primary had to go through an identity check with an address proof in the polling stations – a mix of mostly district councillors’ offices and some “yellow” or pro-democracy shops.
“The significance of the turnout is beyond a primary, it involves establishing an important decision-making mechanism in civil society,” Tai said.
With the high turnout, Benny Tai said the primary results would have a stronger mandate and binding power on the candidates, making the road ahead smoother in achieving their final goal of “35-plus”.
“We surely cannot bar someone from running in accordance with the law … but if someone violates the agreement [and go ahead to run], I think that will be tantamount to committing political suicide,” he warned.
Soon before the primary was held, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai warned it could breach the controversial new legislation. Police also raided the office of the primary organiser on Friday night, saying they received complaints related to an opinion poll conducted in 2013.
– The poll’s co-organiser Au Nok-hin (ex-Democratic Party), speaking in another programme, said the warning and the raid prompted more people to come out.
– Chung Kim-wah, another co-organiser and deputy chief executive officer of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, which helped tabulate the ballots, said much time was needed to count the paper ballots, as voter information had to be cross-checked with that of mobile app voting for duplication and votes deleted if necessary.
He said they had already identified about 1,000 duplicated votes, but added that the voting system could detect and delete problematic ones.
Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday that at least five people told him they were able to vote at least twice because staff at polling stations did not check their identity cards or proof of address.
Asked about the situation on Monday, Au Nok-hin (Democratic Party) said there are multiple rounds of checks to avoid or identify duplicated votes.
Also on Monday, former Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing said he was not too worried about the pro-Beijing camp’s chances in the September polls, as the primary turnout represented less than one-third of voters who supported the bloc in last year’s district elections.
“My estimate is that the chance of [the pan-democrats] winning a majority in the coming election will not be too high,” he told an online talk show.
Additional reporting by Natalie Wong and Tony Cheung
Democrats’ plan to win legislative majority to oppose gov’t policy may be illegal under security law says Hong Kong’s Lam
by Tom Grundy (HKFP)
21:13, 13 July 2020
Chief Exec. Carrie Lam has said that a coordinated effort by democrats to win a majority in the legislature in order to oppose government policy may be illegal under the national security law.
Lam was asked on Monday 13 for her reaction to the pro-democracy camp’s primary election over the weekend, which saw a high turnout of over 600,000 citizens.
At a press conference, she warned that people must not “interfere, disrupt [or] cause confusion” in the run-up to the legislative election.
“If this so-called primary election’s purpose is to achieve the ultimately goal of… rejecting to, resisting every policy initiative of the Hong Kong SAR government, then it may fall into the category of subverting the state power,” she said, “which is now one of the four types offences under the new national security law.”
Lam added she was only issuing a warning, but there may be a case to answer.
She said the government had received complaints that the exercise over the weekend had caused confusion, broken Covid-19 gathering rules and was a breach of privacy.
Throughout the weekend, citizens queued at over 200 polling stations in the heat, despite news of a fresh Covid-19 outbreak hitting the headlines.
The primary results – expected to be released on Tuesday 14 – will be used as a reference to select candidates to represent the democratic camp in five geographical constituencies. The constituencies include Kowloon East, Kowloon West, Hong Kong Island, New Territories East, New Territories as well as two functional constituencies – “super” district councillors and health services sector in September’s Legislative Council election.
However, Lam said on Monday that there was “no such thing as a primary,” saying it was not part of Hong Kong’s electoral system.
Last week, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang has claimed that participation in the primaries could violate the law due to organisers’ calls for democrats to veto the annual government budget if they win a majority in the legislature.
Following Lam’s Monday press conference, his department said that the government was investigating complaints about the weekend’s primaries “and will seek legal advice if necessary.”
“The ordinance of election in Hong Kong will not recognise nor approve the format, procedure and results of the so-called “primaries” held by the pro-democratic camp,” a spokesperson said.
Hong Kong’s traditional opposition parties lose out to localist challengers in fierce weekend primary for coming Legislative Council election
by Tony Cheung, Natalie Wong and Lilian Cheng (SCMP)
Published: 9:56pm, 13 Jul, 2020
Chief Executive Carrie Lam issues a strong warning to the candidates and organisers of the primary.
Preliminary results covering about 590,000 electronic votes show veterans Helena Wong (Democratic) and Leung Kwok-hung (LSD) falling short.
Hong Kong’s traditional opposition parties have lost ground to localist challengers in a fierce weekend primary contest to determine who should run in coming elections, as the city leader warned any planned action to paralyse policymaking was potentially subversive.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor issued a strong warning to the candidates and organisers of the primary on Monday 13 night, saying it was subversive for them to vow to seize control of the legislature and vote down key government proposals.
“If this so-called primary election’s purpose is to achieve the ultimate goal of delivering what they called ‘35-plus’ [lawmakers], with the objective of objecting or resisting every policy initiative of the HKSAR government, it may fall into the category of subverting the state power – one of the four types of offences under the national security law,” she said.
“I am not saying it has breached it, but I have to put forward a warning that if that’s going to be proven to be the case, then it’s certainly a case to be answered.”
In a strongly worded statement issued late on Monday, a spokesman for Beijing’s liaison office in the city condemned the opposition camp for ignoring the Hong Kong government’s warning of possible legal breaches and pressing ahead with the primary.
It named Occupy movement co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting as a suspect in a possible breach of the national security law by coordinating with the opposition camp to seek control of the legislature, vote down the budget, paralyse the government and subvert the state power.
It also accused Benny Tai and the opposition of aiming to take over the city’s governance by staging the Hong Kong version of a “colour revolution”.
The office also threw its weight behind the government to conduct an investigation in accordance with the law, saying the primary was a serious provocation of the current election system and a blatant violation of privacy laws as the opposition camp had taken the chance to collect a massive amount of voters’ information.
As preliminary results covering about 590,000 electronic votes were announced on Monday night, it emerged that traditional parties lost grounds in most of the direct constituencies, with Helena Wong, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party, only came seventh in the Kowloon West constituency, where the pan-democrat camp aimed to win four seats in September’s Legislative Council elections.
Former lawmaker “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, of the League of Social Democrats (LSD), managed only ninth place in New Territories East, for which the camp agreed that only the top seven candidates should run in September.
Candidates from numerous small parties were wiped out, including Kalvin Ho Kai-ming from the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood and Carol Ng Man-yee from the Labour Party, who lost in their respective constituencies.
Localist candidates
Localist candidates, with many gaining public attention for their activist roles since last year’s anti-government protests, gained the upper hand in the primary.
Political activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung (ex-Demosisto) was the top candidate in Kowloon East, while two of the localists he endorsed – former journalist Gwyneth Ho Kwai-lam and incumbent lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick – came first in New Territories East and New Territories West respectively.
Jimmy Sham (LSD) Tsz-kit, convenor of the Civil Human Rights Front, and Sunny Cheung Kwan-yang took the first two places in Kowloon West.
Tiffany Yuen Ka-wai, the candidate endorsed by activist Nathan Law Chung-chung who withdrew from the election because of the new security law and revealed on Monday night that he fled to London, came second in Hong Kong Island after Democratic Party lawmaker Ted Hui Chi-fung.
Chung Kim-wah, deputy chief executive of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, said the final results would be released on Tuesday at the earliest after they counted 21,000 paper ballots of all constituencies and handled problematic votes.
The opposition camp held the polls to whittle down their list of Legco candidates from 52 to those with the best chance of achieving a “35-plus” majority in the 70-seat legislature. Running too many opposition candidates, they believed, would play into the hands of pro-establishment rivals by splitting the votes.
Among the 52 candidates were
– 27 localist challengers,
– 11 activists from traditional parties,
– 14 incumbent opposition lawmakers, including seven from the Democratic Party, four from the Civic Party, and pan-democrats Eddie Chu, Joseph Lee Kok-long, and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen.
Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political scientist at Chinese University, said the results, which reflected the rise of localists, would prompt the winning candidates to adopt a radical approach throughout the election campaign.
“But it might also prompt the authorities to further tighten their grip on this narrower spectrum of the pro-democracy camp, by disqualifying the candidates, or even postponing the election,” he said.
In a statement, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said it had received complaints that the two-day exercise was to manipulate the Legco elections and it could breach privacy laws. It also noted there were complaints that the exercise could breach the national security law as it was a bid to subvert the state power and interfere with the functions of the body of power of Hong Kong.
Key organiser Benny Tai said candidates were not seeking to undermine the performance of duties and functions by the body of power of the central government or of Hong Kong, referring to their agreement that pan-democrats should veto the budget if they were voted into Legco.
“Legco’s power of vetoing the budget is stated in the Basic Law,” he said, referring to the city’s mini-constitution. “How can a power that is recognised by the Basic Law be breaching the national security law?”
Au Nok-hin, a former lawmaker (ex-Democratic Party) who coordinated the primary, said the government’s attempt to threaten them again with the newly enacted law would not succeed.
“We held the primary in a peaceful manner and haven’t intruded on anyone’s rights,” he said.
On Sunday, several incumbent lawmakers from the Democratic and Civic parties had made an “emergency appeal” to voters. The moderate politicians found themselves in deep water as they attempted to secure support in the face of challenges from young localist rivals who had opted for more confrontational tactics against the authorities.
Long queues were spotted outside polling stations across the city over the weekend, as a total of 592,211 votes were cast via a mobile phone app and about 21,000 paper ballots were cast in 240 polling stations during the two-day weekend primary.
The figure, which far exceeded the original target of 170,000, represented more than 13.8 per cent of Hong Kong’s registered voters. The citywide primary came less than two weeks after Beijing’s imposition of the national security law on Hong Kong.
The 52 candidates were running in all five geographical constituencies, as well as in the health services and district council (second) functional constituencies.
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