They will need to double down on efforts to engage the young and public housing estate residents and not just rely on their traditional base of better-educated, middle-class voters, analysts say
Kowloon West candidate Edward Yiu Chung-yim’s stunning loss in Sunday’s by-election might be blamed on local factors but many in the pro-democracy camp accept it as a wake-up call for them.
Until now, the bloc had never lost a Legislative Council by-election as they tended to bag roughly 55 to 60 per cent of votes in direct elections.
But that advantage evaporated for Yiu when his rival Vincent Cheng Wing-shun, of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress for Hong Kong, received 49.9 per cent of votes, compared to Yiu’s 48.4 per cent.
With only 44 per cent of voters going to the polls in the constituency this time – compared to 58.1 per cent in the 2016 general election – Yiu recorded 105,060 votes, 54,539 fewer than what the pro-democracy camp got two years ago.
Cheng, a district councillor for Sham Shui Po in the constituency since 2007, got 5,193 more votes than the pro-establishment candidate two years ago.
Four seats – in three geographical constituencies and one functional constituency – were in play on Sunday, and the prevailing view was that the pro-democracy camp would sweep at least all the geographical seats, albeit in a tight race.
But while the camp’s Au Nok-hin and Gary Fan Kwok-wai won the race in Hong Kong Island and New Territories East, their vote shares dropped to 50.7 per cent and 44.6 per cent.
The pro-establishment camp’s Tony Tse Wai-chuen took the architectural, surveying, planning and landscape seat but Yiu’s loss hit the hardest.
During the 2016 general election, pro-democracy candidates won four of six seats in Kowloon West.
A disappointed Yiu on Monday attributed his unexpected defeat to “lack of experience” in direct elections and “inappropriate arrangement” of campaign activities.
The surveyor had previously represented the architectural functional constituency but was among six mostly localist lawmakers disqualified for their oath taking antics after they were elected to Legco in 2016. Two of the lawmakers are appealing the court decision, so the fate of their seats will be decided at a later date.
