Hong Kong pan-democrats’ fear of being punished by voters proves unfounded

Before Sunday’s by-election, the city’s biggest pro-establishment party had urged people to vote for Holden Chow Ho-ding to show they wanted Hong Kong to “be back on the right track”.

The message focused on the violent clashes in Mong Kok and pan-democrats’ filibustering tactics in the legislature.

It was a campaign that caused concern among pan-democrat heavyweights as a victory in the New Territories East constituency for Chow, vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, would swing the balance of power in the Legislative Council and enable a vote to change the rules of procedure.

However, their fears proved unfounded.

Chow and another pro-establishment candidate, Christine Fong Kwok-shan, mustered just 183,753 votes between them – 13,136 fewer than the camp received in the 2012 election. They also failed to gain headway in terms of vote share, up by 0.1 percentage point to 42.5 per cent.

Although some DAB leaders argued the party had done “quite well”, political scientists warned that the pro-establishment camp must improve its internal coordination to do better in the full Legco elections in September. Several DAB members believe the party needs to step up its internet promotion.

In 2012, seven pro-establishment candidates garnered 196,889 votes – a 42.4 per cent share of ballots cast. Some 111,574 of those went to three candidates from the Beijing-loyalist DAB and the Federation of Trade Unions, while 55,610 votes went to Fong and the Liberal Party’s James Tien Pei-Chun.