Opinion | Hong Kong’s Legco election should prioritise substance over spectacle
Preventing voter apathy means ensuring that the issues take centre stage and candidates are able to communicate their visions
Before the overhaul of the election system, voter turnout was a barometer of sorts for the election outcome. Conventional wisdom was that the higher the voter turnout, the more the opposition candidates would benefit. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai has even suggested that a low voter turnout could mean that people are satisfied with the government’s work.
However, now that the opposition has no place in the city’s politics – so much so that even centrist lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen’s political group failed to secure enough nominations to become candidates – achieving a high voter turnout seems to be an important focus.
Of course, the election is still competitive. It’s good to see there are no uncontested seats, even for the functional constituencies, even though it isn’t without controversy, as we’ve seen with the tourism constituency.
