Deadly Tai Po blaze affected Hong Kong Legco election voter turnout, minister says
Constitutional affairs chief Erick Tsang says city’s worst fire in decades ‘dampened enthusiasm’, leading to second-lowest rate since 1997
Voter turnout in the recent Legislative Council election was affected by Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, recording the second-lowest rate since the city’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, despite a modest rise from the previous poll, the constitutional affairs chief has said.
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai stressed on Sunday that the government had not set a “hard indicator” for the turnout rate in the December 7 Legco poll, which reached 31.9 per cent.
“I believe the fire had an impact on the election … We understand that there are different views. Some said they were not in the mood to vote amid a heavy atmosphere, while some hoped Legco could be formed as soon as possible for follow-up work and reforms to turn grief and sorrow into strength and vote enthusiastically,” Tsang told a radio show.
“It is difficult to generalise the fire’s impact on the election. However, people were keen to vote even after the fire. The government feels glad about it.”
Despite extensive government efforts to promote the poll until the deadly inferno on November 26, the turnout rate was only slightly above than the record low of 30.2 per cent set in 2021.
Although the turnout rate improved, the number of voters declined by 2.4 per cent to about 1.32 million. The total number of registered voters dropped by 340,000, or 7.6 per cent, to about 4.13 million compared with four years ago.