Hong Kong Holds Vote as Officials Move Against ‘Anti-China’ Elements

The government is pushing hard to raise turnout in an election overshadowed by a deadly fire and public anger over safety lapses and official accountability.

The Hong Kong government was doubling down on a campaign to increase voter turnout in tightly controlled legislative elections on Sunday that are largely devoid of opposition parties, even as the city continued mourning a deadly fire that has prompted calls for official accountability.

At least 159 people were killed last month when a blaze engulfed Wang Fuk Court, a high-rise apartment complex, in the city’s deadliest fire in decades. Officials have said that substandard construction materials likely contributed to the spread of the fire, raising questions about the city’s oversight of its building industry and whether warnings had been ignored.

Residents are being urged to cast ballots on Sunday in an election in which pro-establishment candidates approved by Beijing are all but certain to dominate.

“I’m not voting,” said Mary Chan, 55, a Hong Konger who was at a memorial near the site of the fire earlier this week, where she folded paper cranes as a way to offer peace to the dead. “What’s the point? To help them perform?”

In a sign of how sensitive the fire has become, the authorities have invoked national security laws to warn of consequences for “anti-China elements” who they say are looking to use the fire to cause trouble. At least three people have been arrested by national security police since the disaster.

On Saturday, Beijing’s national security arm in Hong Kong summoned representatives and journalists from some foreign media organizations, including The New York Times, to warn them about coverage of the disaster.

Questions abounded after the fire about whether to postpone the elections, which analysts said were being treated as a test of legitimacy for the government. Campaign activities were suspended for several days after the blaze, but Hong Kong’s chief executive, John Lee, ultimately decided to go ahead with the poll, explaining that the new legislature was needed to help speed up fire recovery and to introduce regulatory reforms.

“At this critical moment of post-disaster reconstruction, we must look to the long term, steadily move ahead and gradually promote the normal functioning of society,” Mr. Lee said on Tuesday.

Mr. Lee has led the government campaign urging residents to participate in the elections. For weeks, Hong Kong has been saturated with posters, banners and social media posts promoting the polls as a civic duty. Even public restrooms outfitted with speakers played a jingle calling on people to vote.

The government mobilized civil servants to show up at the polls and asked chambers of commerce to get businesses to incentivize employees to cast ballots. On Saturday, the government hosted a citywide “Election Fun Day” that included a gala, carnivals and open houses at government offices.

Even the thousands of displaced residents of Wang Fuk Court, where seven towers were consumed by the fire on Nov. 26, have been the focus of a get-out-the-vote drive. The government said on Tuesday that social workers, who were each assigned a household to help through the aftermath of the fire, would also help residents find their new polling stations and direct them to free transportation.

The outreach effort may also be a way for the authorities to monitor residents in case they begin organizing opposition to the government and its handling of the fire, said Victoria Hui, an associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame who studies Hong Kong. “It seems that they are trying to kill two birds with one stone,” Ms. Hui said.

Yam Kai-bong, a former local official in Tai Po, the district where the fire took place, said that a high voter turnout in his former district would be seen as a stamp of approval. “They can announce to the world that the people still believe in the system, believe in the government and believe in the pro-establishment party,” said Mr. Yam, who now lives in Britain.

“The government desperately wants to tell the public that everything is normal,” he said.

Eric Chan, Hong Kong’s No. 2 official, told reporters on Sunday morning that the social workers would not be instructing Wang Fuk residents to vote.

During the last election in 2021, only 30 percent of registered voters cast a ballot. That was the lowest rate in decades and nearly half the record-high turnout in 2016, long before a national security law imposed in 2020 effectively wiped out the pro-democracy opposition.

In 2021, Beijing imposed an electoral overhaul that required all candidates to be vetted as sufficiently patriotic to China. Before those changes, opposition lawmakers were a major force in the legislature who often frustrated the city’s pro-Beijing leaders. After quitting en masse in 2020 in protest, many ended up in jail or living in exile.

Only 20 of the 90 seats up for grabs on Sunday in the city of more than seven million people are directly elected. That is down from 35 seats before the 2021 reforms. The remaining 70 seats are decided by a select group of voters comprising Beijing loyalists and representing different industries and professions.

“Some Hong Kong people may feel they do not have a genuine choice of candidates,” said Emily Lau, a veteran pro-democracy politician and former lawmaker who now hosts an interview show on YouTube.

China is trying to deepen its influence in the legislature after a wave of older and established pro-Beijing politicians abruptly announced in October that they would not seek re-election. In their place are many younger candidates with political and financial ties to the mainland, said John Burns, emeritus professor of politics at Hong Kong University.

China’s representative office in Hong Kong “carefully curates these contests so that the people that they want to win will win,” said Mr. Burns.

The limited choice on the ballot has sullied enthusiasm for an electorate that traditionally used to skew about 60 percent in favor of the opposition parties. Voter registration this year is down eight percent from 2021 at 4.1 million.

In Tai Po, near the site of the fire, voting was the furthest thing from the minds of at least two residents who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were afraid of attracting the attention of the police.

One resident said she appreciated the temporary housing the government had provided, but said she needed to dedicate her energy to finding a permanent home and filling out paperwork for financial aid.

Another resident said he would spend Election Day moving into a new apartment. He said he had lost interest in elections ever since opposition parties were no longer allowed.

A social worker who was assigned to help Wang Fuk Court families said her supervisors had instructed her to provide information about the election, in addition to helping with financial aid applications and accompanying them on visits to a psychiatrist.

The social worker, who declined to be named because of potential government repercussions, said she felt uncomfortable with the orders related to the election, particularly because some of her charges were still mourning the death of their loved ones from the fire.

Li Cheuk-man, a 42-year-old consultant who was displaced by the Wang Fuk fire, said he would vote for certain candidates he thought would address the problems that led to the blaze. He hoped the government would address his financial losses from the fire, help his family find a new home and bring those responsible for the disaster to justice.

“The government is like our guiding north star,” he said. “Our family is drifting at sea now, not knowing where to go.”

He has spent the past week and a half since the disaster trying to secure relief funds and care for his family, he said.

“After my wife and kids have fallen asleep, I’ve cried in a room alone, not knowing what to do,” Mr. Li said.

Billy Ho, a 46-year-old clerk and resident of Tai Po, said outside a polling station that he had cast his vote for candidates he thought could improve Hong Kong’s economy.

Asked if he felt his vote would make a difference given the relative absence of opposition parties, Mr. Ho said he could only hope it would.

“If you don’t even hope for it, it’s a waste of the rights you still have,” he said.

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