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Election restructuring|Non-voting vs. No-voting Moderate pan-democrats: White votes are more active to show the will of Hong Kong people

2021-04-05T10:55:35.056Z


After the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress drastically revised the election system in Hong Kong, many supporters of the democrats and local factions advocated voting in vain or not to show their dissatisfaction with the central government and the Hong Kong government. Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Zeng Guowei, Department of Justice


Political situation

Written by: Wu Zhuoan

2021-04-05 18:44

Last update date: 2021-04-05 18:46

After the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress drastically revised the election system in Hong Kong, many supporters of the democrats and local factions advocated voting in vain or not to show their dissatisfaction with the central government and the Hong Kong government.

The Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Zeng Guowei, and the Secretary for Justice, Zheng Ruohua, have recently mentioned that they will study whether the current system is adequate to deal with the phenomenon of vain votes. Members of the establishment Legislative Council even pointed out today (5th) that the behavior of vain votes has risen to There are large-scale, organized, and non-discriminatory boycotts of elections, or the opportunity to commit incitement.

To vote in vain or not to vote, supporters of the pro-democracy faction have been arguing on the Internet recently.

Some moderate democratic district councilors said in anonymity that they tend to support the strategy of voting in vain. Since vain votes were classified as invalid votes in the election, according to the law, the staff of the voting station must display them publicly. For example, during the election of the chief executive in 2017, there was "foul talk". "Vote", "more actively demonstrate to the regime the absurdity of elections and the will of Hong Kong people to strive for democracy."

Other democrats analyzed that the democrats and local voters are already very smart, no one needs to call publicly, and they know how to choose to vote in vain, deliberately cast invalid votes, not to vote, or to vote for the democrats in the district that can enter the gate.

In the 2017 Chief Executive Election, some electoral commissioners wrote foul words on the ballots, which were regarded as invalid votes.

(Photo by Liang Pengwei and Huang Yongjun)

"Boycotters" worry about voting in vain, pushing up turnout in disguise

Integrating the views of the democrats and netizens, those who advocate voting in vain or invalid votes generally believe that based on the turnout rate of more than 70% in the district council election last year and 2.94 million people voted, if the next Legislative Council election can maintain 70% of the vote Among them, nearly 60% of the pro-democracy supporters (1.67 million) voted in vain or invalid votes. The number of vain votes is enough to show the citizens’ dissatisfaction with the electoral system.

However, another opinion believes that supporters of the pro-democracy party should "cold handle" the next Legislative Council election and should not go to the polling station to vote, causing the turnout rate to drop to 30 to 40%, thus making the election and the elected lose public acceptance; If a large number of people rush to vote in vain, it is feared that the turnout rate will be increased, which will increase the credibility of the election in disguise.

After the restructuring of the Legislative Council elections, the proportion of directly elected seats will be greatly reduced.

(Profile picture)

Believe that supporters have the wisdom to judge by themselves how to express their dissatisfaction

Some moderate-democratic district councilors pointed out that based on the experience of past elections, the polling station will handle the invalid votes at the counting station. Once a blank vote is cast, the ballot is repeatedly voted, and words such as foul language are written on the ballot. It will be regarded as invalid tickets, and for fairness, the invalid tickets will be displayed publicly on the spot.

However, there is also a "disadvantage" of voting in vain, which is that the relevant number will not be shown in the official election results. After the election, a simple process of data collation is required to know the percentage of invalid votes.

On the contrary, if the vote is boycotted, the low turnout rate will be announced immediately.

The district councillors also believed that voting in a blank vote is more "actively" to show the regime the absurdity of the election and the will of Hong Kong people to strive for democracy. If you do not vote, you may lose an opportunity to speak out.

Some democrats analyzed that voters of traditional democrats and local groups are already very smart, knowing how to choose to vote in vain, deliberately invalidate, not participate in the vote, and even vote for the democrats who can enter the gate in the district, without any public appeal. Therefore, this person believes that there is no need for the democrats to discuss what strategy to adopt. They only need to let the public choose to vote in vain or not to vote. The two methods are like "brothers climbing a mountain" without disputes.

A local district councillor criticized that voting in vain was a basic right of the citizens, saying that the central government had drastically revised Hong Kong’s electoral system and the safety factor was already very high. He asked why Zeng Guowei and Zheng Ruohua still have to "export techniques" (Photo by Li Zetong / Information Picture)

Local faction: the establishment faction is better for sharing cakes and fighting each other

A local district councillor criticized that voting in vain was a basic right of the citizens, saying that the central government had drastically revised Hong Kong’s electoral system and the safety factor was already very high. He asked why Zeng Guowei and Zheng Ruohua still had to "exit tricks" to force the citizens to do it in the election. Cheerleader, "If you are afraid that people will vote in vain, you can appoint it directly!"

Regarding what votes the supporters should vote in the next election, the local faction bluntly said "it doesn't matter" because he feels that the election is no longer acceptable, and it is up to the government to decide, "I have already said, the last real official election. As for the district election the year before, the unofficial election was the democratic primary election. You (the government) caught all the candidates in the primary election and asked the voters to vote. Are you playing hard with the voters?" It’s worth looking forward to in the month that "you have to vote first," and in the future the establishment will be the scene of the pie and the fight.

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01News

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Legislative Council election

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2021-04-05

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