Hong Kong election highlights rising anti-China mood

When Chan Sin-yee presented her ID card to a polling officer yesterday hoping to cast her first ever vote in a Legislative Council election, she was shocked to see her name already crossed out in red.

A China Resources Land employee reportedly received a letter from the Hong Kong Chinese Enterprises Association, which has more than 1,000 members, asking staff to vote for patriotic candidates who “love China and love Hong Kong”.

Supporters from different political groups line to urge people to vote, at the upcoming Legislative Council elections in Hong Kong Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016.

“There was a record-breaking amount of people casting their ballots this year”, Electoral Affairs Commission chairman Barnabus Fung told reporters today.

(AP Photo/Vincent Yu). A police officer stands near a polling station for the legislative council election Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016. Hong Kongers are heading to the polls Sunday in the first major electio.

The democrats need to keep control of at least a third of the seats, which gives them veto power to block government attempts to enact unpopular legislation, including a possible renewed attempt to enact Beijing’s controversial election revamp that triggered the 2014 street protests. They were fighting for se Before the vote, some polls forecast victories for the young independence activists, but that could split the vote for the pro-democracy camp – and end up playing into the hands of pro-Beijing parties. The more strident independence activists – slammed by Beijing and Hong Kong authorities as acting illegally – were banned by the government from running in Sunday’s election, a move that sparked anger.

A small group of protesters demanded the resignation of Beijing-backed leader, Leung Chun-ying, outside the polling station where he voted, while some others expressed their intention to just keep his government in check.

Currently, the pro-democracy side controls 27 out of 70 seats in the Special Administrative Region’s legislative council. The pro-democracy camp now controls 27 of 70 seats, and must keep at least a third of the seats to retain veto power.

Meanwhile, former Occupy Central student leader Nathan Law, who is running for he newly formed Demosisto Party, called on voters to turn out to vote for pan-democratic candidates. The latter stepped in to run after a friend, Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous, was disqualified for advocating independence.

Hong Kong officials are generally supportive of Beijing and keen to preserve “one country, two systems”, though confidence in China’s commitment to the formula has been shaken by recent incidents including the abduction of several Hong Kong booksellers by Chinese agents.

At some polling stations there were snaking queues until 2:30 am (1830 Sunday GMT) – four hours later than the scheduled cut-off time – with a turnout of nearly 60 percent of 3.7 million voters.

Some 3.8 million registered voters are choosing lawmakers to fill 35 seats in geographic constituencies.

A lack of reliable polling and a complicated system in which lists of candidates vie for multiple seats in each district makes predicting the outcome hard. According to the Economist, the remaining 30 seats belong to “functional constituencies”, which are chosen by groups representing business interests, professionals, and rural communities.