Voter turnout rises two percentage points
Voter turnout in yesterday’s election was in line with expectations and similar to that of previous Legislative Assembly elections, rising two percentage points from the previous election in 2013.
According to government estimates, a total of 174,872 voters (57 percent of the total) cast their ballots yesterday in the direct elections, up from 55.02 percent in 2013 but down from 59.91 percent in 2009.
As for the indirect elections, between 82 percent and 97 percent of registered electors for the five functional constituencies cast their vote. Only one candidate contested the designated seat for many of these functional constituencies.
Yesterday’s election was the most contested election since the 1999 handover, with more lists than ever before vying for a seat or two in the legislature.
Some analysts attributed the destruction brought by Typhoon Hato last month and the government’s response to the disaster as a pulling factor for voters. They said that voters would use the election as a chance to respond to the government’s handling of the situation.
The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election’s role in sending out advanced information on polling stations ahead of the election may have also contributed, as might the trial runs conducted in the days leading up to Sunday, particularly for the elderly and the handicapped.
The weather also held out yesterday. Poor weather conditions are known to affect the number of voters that head to the polls.
Voter turnout in democratic countries and states tends to fluctuate for a variety of reasons, including the issues at stake, the character of the election contenders themselves, and the perceived closeness of the election, as well as the level of political apathy and the importance that voters attach to the political process.
In last year’s legislative election in Hong Kong, some 58 percent of the population cast their ballots, five percentage points higher than in the 2012 election. Analysts attributed the sharp rise to the effect of the Umbrella Movement in late-2014, which paralyzed parts of Hong Kong city, including Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.
