While critics question ‘lesser of two evils’ strategy, others say the election contributed to a civil awakening for the middle-aged
Five years ago, winding queues of would-be voters emerged across Hong Kong for the pan-democratic camp’s civil referendum – a mock ballot giving fellow citizens a say in the chief executive election. More than 222,990 people participated in the March 23 event, with an overwhelming 54.6 per cent – or 121,661 voters – casting blank ballots in protest of what they called a “small-circle election”. A similar civil referendum held this year, however, failed to attract the same public interest, with just 65,106 participating. opted for pro-establishment candidate John Tsang Chun-wah. With participants forced to disclose personal details via the Telegram messaging app, the poor turnout was. But, undoubtedly, the conspicuous absence of any promotion from mainstream pan-democrats also had an impact. The pan-democratic bloc entered representatives into the 2007 and 2012 chief executive elections, with political reform central to its campaigns. But this year, the camp adopted an entirely new, albeit contentious approach by endorsing the candidate it saw as the “lesser of two evils”: Tsang. It was hoped the strategy would stop former chief secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor – a perceived hardliner and Beijing’s preferred candidate – from clinching victory. But it failed to pay off and left many questioning whether the pan-democratic bloc was right to position itself as kingmaker in what was widely considered a Beijing-decreed contest. “I think the pan-democrats are losers in the election,” Dr Ma Ngok, a political scientist at Chinese University, said. “It was unfortunate that many pro-democracy issues were not raised throughout the election as the camp did not have a spokesman in the race.” This year, the camp hedged its bets by giving third contender Woo Kwok-hing 180 nominations to run for chief executive. But unlike previous pan-democrat candidates Alan Leong Kah-kit and Albert Ho Chun-yan, the retired judge did not have a solid record of advocating democracy. One of the strongest critics of the pan-democrats’ approach was at the risk of forsaking his core principle of opposing the “small circle election”.
