Results from New Territories East – a traditional opposition stronghold – suggest more voters stayed home, with others choosing to support an independent candidate instead
While the pro-democracy bloc’s Gary Fan Kwok-wai won the New Territories East seat in Sunday’s by-election, some localist voters – who support more radical ways of achieving self-determination for Hong Kong – abandoned him.
At certain polling stations, Fan’s vote share was 10 per cent lower than pro-democracy candidates in previous elections.
Indeed, localist supporters were seen as a wild card in this poll, which was triggered by the disqualification of six mostly localist lawmakers over their oath-taking antics after the 2016 Legislative Council election.
The constituency is known as an opposition stronghold – voters picked only three pro-establishment candidates from a slate of nine lawmakers two years ago.
But Fan said: “According to our preliminary analysis, some may have cast empty ballots, followed ‘scorched earth’ calls, or just didn’t vote.”
He was referring to how some activists, accusing him of not being a true localist, urged supporters ahead of the poll to adopt a “scorched earth policy” by casting blank votes or just staying home.
Indeed, New Territories East saw more voters give polling stations a miss compared to the two other geographical constituencies and one functional constituency where three seats were contested.
Two ousted lawmakers are appealing against their disqualification so the fate of their seats will be decided later.
On Sunday, only 42 per cent of registered voters in the constituency showed up to cast their ballot, when 46 per cent did so in the 2016 by-election for a different seat, and over 60 per cent took part in the 2016 general election.
