[District Council] Political Scholar Ma Yue-Regional Political Performance Still Influential

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Written by: Chen Yilin, Chen Zhiyong

2019-12-11 08:00

Ma Yue, an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Administration of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, described the sub-district elections as essentially a "tsunami of public opinion." When he wrote the "Regional Election Three Questions" analysis of the election results in Ming Pao earlier, he believed that the current work performance of the incumbent parliamentarians still had a certain influence on the district election. Ma Yue divided the 63 constituencies that the Democrats failed to win into Dafu (District 9), Rural (12 Districts), Traditional Crimson (District 19), Lost votes (District 6), Xinwu Village (District 3) In addition to the six major categories of failed re-election (14 districts), they believe that the establishments that are still sustainable under the tide of public opinion reflect that their regional work should have a certain quality; second, the winning rate of democratic political groups that have always attached importance to regional work It is quite high, for example, the ADPL, NLD, Labor Party, and Street Workers have almost won. "Reflecting the early deployment and early fall, it will still have a better chance than the temporary airborne amateurs." Finally, he calculated the democracy of 113 successful re-elections. The average winning margin of sent parliamentarians is 26.1%. It is estimated that when the turnout rate drops by 10%, these democratic parliamentarians with regional working foundations can also "completely pass."

Carrying on the above: How do district councillors practice regional governance in the post-revision period?

Ma Yue explained in an interview with "Hong Kong 01" that this election cannot be compared with the previous district elections. The results clearly show that many citizens only look at political positions and do not look at regional work. When many amateurs work very little, they can still Winning more than half of the votes is one proof. "In the past district board elections, three or four adults used district work as the voting standard, but this time it may only be 10%. The current democratic party (district member) has done a good job and he is more stable. On the contrary, there are formed parties ( District councillors) have strong regional work and have the opportunity to hold their seats. "Asked whether the political atmosphere would become weak in four years and whether the public would think about district board elections with political thinking, Ma Yue admitted that no one knew," but If you have regional work tickets, you will be more stable. "

Ma Yue believes that the formed district councillors who still hold their seats under the "public tsunami" reflect the quality of their regional work. (Photo / Photo by Ye Jiahao)

The district council elections centered on political stance are not the first stage. In 2003, the government tried to promote the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law, which immediately caused a rebound in public opinion. In addition, people ’s livelihood and economic problems such as SARS and negative assets were plagued. In the district election in the same year, voters used the ballots to punish the establishments that escorted the government's legislation. Among the 400 elected seats, the democrats obtained 161 seats, and obtained the dominance of the Sham Shui Po and Kwai Tsing District Councils, breaking the former establishment monopoly zone. The situation of the parliament; however, the formed political parties did not sit still. In order to regain lost ground, they spent a lot of resources to organize regional activities to win the hearts of the people. They finally won the District Council elections in 2007. However, the "Community Welfare" election model has gradually become the mainstream and made the establishment Stand up in future elections.

In this election, Ma Yue believes that "community welfare" may still work, but it is not up to the high voting rate and politically focused voting standards. However, he hopes that when the Democrats become a majority in the 17 District Councils, the functions of the District Councils and the voters ’expectations of the District Councils may change:" Many residents in the past 10 years only expected the "Snake Cake", but now I hope that the district boards will do better: for example, they will strengthen their participation and change their political outlook. Everyone's thinking will be different. "

On November 25, the formation of the district council lost most of its seats. The Democratic Party, the largest party of the establishment, convened the Central Committee and met with reporters after the meeting. Chairman Li Huiqiong said the election was a major setback and apologized to the public. (Profile picture / Photo by Luo Junhao)

After one thing, a long wisdom. Since the reunification, the District Council elections have reached the sixth term. What are the implications of the election results for both parties? As far as the establishment faction is concerned, Ma Yue believes that the establishment faction should recognize its limitations-when the political environment is unfavorable to itself and voters use political standards to vote, the long-term work in the region has not made it possible for it to be independent. When the trust of the SAR government is low, for example, the constitutionalists still blindly support, is this a blessing or a curse? Ma Yue said, "The paradox of the system is that the establishment faction needs to face elections, but (the chief executive) Lin Zheng (Yue'e) and the China United Nations Office do not have to face the election. But in the end, he couldn't punish Lin Zheng, but he punished the DAB. "

For the democrats, Ma Yue believes that regional work is very important and needs to assist residents to solve problems, and should not be limited to their own constituencies. "Should they upend some people's imagination of the functions of district boards? Let others feel that democrats can Bring new weather, whether it is regional resources or resident relations, there are new practices, this is one of the very important tests, otherwise what about you going up? "Ma Yue explained, looking back at the 2003 election, in fact, the democrats won. The scope was small. At that time, they also lacked new imagination about the functions of the district boards. They did not have the consciousness of reforming the boards. "They would not think that it was a golden opportunity ... a lot of reforms were needed. It changed so much that it lost in 2007, and now it is sixteen years apart. "

The above excerpt is from the 192nd issue of the Hong Kong 01 weekly report (December 9, 2019) "How District Council Members Practice Regional Governance in the Post-Amendment Era".

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