Edmond Ng, James Pomfret

HONG KONG (Reuters – Pro-Beijing contenders won in a Hong Kong-only “patriots-only” legislative election that was deemed regressive. The turnout fell to a record low in the face of China’s crackdowns on Hong Kong’s freedoms.

With a turnout close to half of that in the 2016 legislative poll, the most recent results show almost all the seats were taken by pro–Establishment and pro-Beijing candidates.

Some of the candidates cheered and sang “guaranteed wins” from the stage near the central vote-counting centre.

Starry Lee (the head of the proBeijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong) answered that her party did not have a mandate due to the low turnout. She said the electoral overhaul would help improve governance.

“I don’t think this low turnout (low voter participation) can be directly attributed to citizens disagreeing with this electoral process. I believe it needs some time for people to get adapted to this system,” she told reporters at the vote counting center.

Some activists, rights groups and foreign governments have criticized the election as being undemocratic. Only candidates who were screened as “patriots”, by government officials, could contest it. The mainstream parties pro-democracy did not vote, stating that they couldn’t endorse candidates in a poll which was not democratic.

The majority of those who claimed to be moderates (including Frederick Fung), did not win a seat and succumbed to pro-Beijing candidates.

It’s difficult to get people to vote. Fung stated that they believe people are indifferent to current circumstances.

Sunny Cheung was one of the many overseas democrats who fled persecution under US national security laws to flee Hong Kong. He claimed that the majority of Hong Kong “consciously boycotted elections to vent their frustration to the rest.”

After the 1997 city’s transition from British to Chinese control, the prior record for a legislative vote was 43.6%. It occurred in 2000.

The representative of Beijing’s Liaison Office, China in Hong Kong, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ questions about the outcome or the low turnout.

It is an important issue because observers see it as a barometer for legitimacy in an election when pro-democracy contenders are mostly absent. In addition, a crackdown on a China-imposed security law has led to scores of democrats being imprisoned, while others have been forced into exile.

The electoral shakeup saw the percentage of direct elected seats drop from about half to less that a quarter (or 20 seats).

A committee made up of Beijing loyalists selected forty seats, and the 30 remaining were filled by professionals and business sector such as engineering and finance, which are known as functional constituencies.

This group also saw a drop in turnout from 74% to 32.2% between 2016 and 2017. There were some areas that have had historically been more pro-democracy than others, like education and law.

The turnout rate for the 2019 Hong Kong citywide elections was 71%. Around 90% of the 452 seats were won by Democrats.

Some observers believe that the low turnout may undermine the legitimacy and credibility of the new legislative. However, Carrie Lam, the leader of Hong Kong, stated in a statement that the approximately 1.3 million ballots were “shows support for the improved electoral process.”