Silent election

If it wasn’t for the fluttering flags and colorful posters I am afraid that many people walking on the streets would be unaware that there is a large election campaign underway in the districts of Hong Kong. In this silent election, candidates are fighting over 431 democratically elected seats in the 18 district councils of Hong Kong.

Devoid of budget-making or legislative powers, the role of Hong Kong’s District Councils is merely to provide consultations and recommendations. In addition to the 27 ex officio members of the Rural Committee in the New Territories of Hong Kong, the election on November 22 will be the first time that the electorate has directly chosen all the seats.

The number of candidates standing has broken all past records, including the participation of many young “umbrella soldiers” from the pan-democracy camp; most believe that this is related to the 2014 Occupy Central Movement. Apart from the 68 candidates who will be automatically selected because they are the only candidate standing in their respective constituency (mainly Pro-Beijing camp), from a total of 867 parliamentary candidates, 400 of which are independently standing, 363 candidates will democratically elected to parliament.

In many of the constituencies there only 2 candidates competing for 1 seat, making competition anything but fierce. However, though electoral districts are small, there is from between 15,000 and 20,000 voters in each, most of who can be easily mobilized. Additional problems such as vote rigging and bribery means that the margin between winning and losing can be very small, and therefore candidates dare not be complacent. As a result, it is impossible to avoid the fierce campaigning taking place in community plazas, metro stations and bus stations. Even though pro-government factions control the majority of seats, the elections in 18 district councils are a symbol of democracy and universal suffrage in Hong Kong, and better than nothing.

Silent election

URL:https://www.peopo.org/news/291999

(以下為中文對照)

無聲的選舉

如果不是飄揚的旗幟，或是五顔六色的海報，許多人走在街頭上，恐怕不會知道一場大規模的競選活動正在香港各地區進行。這是無聲的選舉，爭奪的是未來四年18個區議會的431個民選議席。

因爲沒有審核預算和立法權，香港區議會只是咨詢和建議機構。除了27名新界鄉事委員會主席為當然議員，11月22日的選舉由選民第一次直接選出所有席位，候選人數打破歷年來記錄，有不少泛民主派的年輕「傘兵」參與，一般認爲跟2014年佔領中環運動有關。因爲同額選舉，有68個候選人自動當選，絕大部分都是建制派，其它的363個議席，由867名候選人選出，包括約400位獨立候選人。

很多選區是兩人競爭一個席位，並不算激烈。但是選區小，選民人數通常在1萬5000人到2萬人左右，大致容易積極動員，加上賄選或造假的手段，輸贏差距可能很小，候選人因此不敢掉以輕心，競選活動難免在社區廣場、地鐵或公車站，短兵相接。即使都由親政府派控制多數席位，18個區議會選舉還是香港民主普選的唯一象徵，多少聊勝於無。