double turnout compared to 2015

Urns closed in Hong Kong where, with a record turnout, voters were called to renew district councils. The polling stations for the renewal of the district councils closed, giving way to the counting operations. The electoral affairs commission has not provided the final figure on participation in the vote which is very high and is expected to be above 70%. At 9:30 am (2.30 pm in Italy), the turnout was 69%, or 2.85 million voters, already almost double the 1.47 million in the 2015 election round, closed with the turnout of 47%.

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Even near the closure of the polling stations, the pro-establishment and pro-democracy fronts continued to launch the last appeals for voting both among their supporters and among those who were undecided. The Commission for electoral affairs, despite the massive deployment of law enforcement agencies in riot gear, has announced that the voting operations went smoothly, while the complaints filed have so far mainly concerned the long lines at the polling stations, in some cases close to two hours. The Commission called for patience, providing that even after 10.30 pm (15:30 in Italy) voters still in the polls could have voted.

Governor Carrie Lam said she was confident about the elections. "We faced an extremely challenging situation in organizing these elections, but I am satisfied with the efforts of all the parties involved, including of course the 30,000 public employees at work in many departments today," said Lam, speaking after filing the card in urn of the seat set up at Raimondi College, in the Central and Western District. "We should have a relatively peaceful and calm environment for this election to be a success." Asked if the vote could be a vote of confidence in him, the governor, according to local media, replied that "today's vote is to elect candidates for the 18 district councils. I am sure that every voter will take all the factors into consideration before deciding ».

Joshua Wong, a former student leader of the 2014 "umbrella movement" and one of the leading pro-democracy activists, assured that he will continue to fight, despite the exclusion from the renewal elections of district councils seen as an opportunity to measure popular support for protests, very violent in recent weeks, which have been shaking the city for almost 6 months. Immediately after voting, Wong noted that "people can protest in the ballot boxes or on the streets for democracy and against the police hold on demonstrators." Wong was disqualified from the electoral competition in late October because he was deemed to lack the electoral law requirements due to his positions for Hong Kong self-determination. China does not allow talk of independence of the territory returned from London to Beijing in 1997. The activist has still urged global mobilization in favor of Hong Kong to keep attention high on the elections.


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