On 19 December 2021 Hong Kong held its first Legislative Council election under rules rewritten by Beijing. Turnout in the directly elected seats was about 30%, the lowest since the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Pro-Beijing candidates won almost every seat.
What changed
After mass protests in 2019 and a landslide for pro-democracy candidates in that year's district council elections, China's National People's Congress approved sweeping changes to Hong Kong's electoral system in March 2021. Officials said the aim was to ensure that only "patriots" governed Hong Kong.
The main changes were:
- the Legislative Council was enlarged to 90 seats, but the number directly elected by the public was cut to 20;
- 40 seats were to be chosen by an Election Committee dominated by pro-Beijing figures;
- all candidates had to be approved by a new Candidate Eligibility Review Committee, including checks by national security officials.
These changes came on top of the National Security Law imposed in June 2020, under which many prominent pro-democracy politicians had been arrested or had left Hong Kong.
The vote
Most established pro-democracy parties did not field candidates. Some activists abroad urged a boycott; encouraging others to cast blank votes or not vote had been made an offence. The government ran a large campaign to encourage voting. Turnout in the geographical constituencies fell to about 30.2%, compared with 58% at the previous Legislative Council election in 2016.
How it was described
Hong Kong and Beijing officials said the election was fair and the result showed support for the new system, and attributed low turnout partly to the pandemic. Critics, including the governments of the UK, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand in a joint statement, said the changes had eroded democratic participation. The headline this page once carried, describing voters in disparaging terms, is not something we would endorse: who chose not to vote, and why, is a matter of interpretation.
Why it matters
The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, a treaty registered at the UN, promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. Whether that promise has been kept is a question of international law and of politics, and elections are one of the clearest measures.