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Opinion | Hong Kong’s Carrie Lam should take Legco election voter turnout seriously
- Lam claims that a low voter turnout in the coming Legislative Council election could indicate high public satisfaction, but her low approval rating and the rise in number of people without adequate housing suggest otherwise
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What was the most memorable moment in Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s run for the city’s top job in 2017? When news crews caught her not knowing that she needed to push the turnstile at the MTR station exit after she had “doo”-ed her Octopus card over the reader, of course.
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There was also her being genuinely surprised that convenience stores do not sell toilet paper. But no matter how she tried to spin that Octopus moment, it was quintessential Lam: hopelessly out of touch.
In an incredible interview our city’s chief executive recently gave to the Global Times, Lam really outdid herself. Many – myself included – have speculated low voter turnout for the Legislative Council polls taking place on Sunday. And to that, Lam said “the turnout rate does not mean anything.”
It most certainly means many things. For one, it quite literally means the percentage of eligible voters that have participated in an election. As such, a low voter turnout is usually undesirable. It reflects a social mood of disillusionment, indifference or helplessness – a belief that casting a vote is futile.
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Hong Kong to hold first Legislative Council polls after Beijing's overhaul of electoral system
Hong Kong to hold first Legislative Council polls after Beijing's overhaul of electoral system
Voter turnout, Mrs Lam, means plenty. Feelings among voters of not mattering or of being ostracised are not nothing. Light a fire under those feelings of nothing and they could potentially explode into the collective fatalism that threw our city into the depths of hell in 2019.
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