Hong Kong votes in renewed elections that are only “patriotic” | Politics News

More than 10 people have been arrested in connection with the election for allegedly pushing for a blank ballot.

Hong Kong voters went to the polls on Sunday for the first time since Sunday to renew the election and enact a comprehensive national security law in the city.

Legislative Council elections – in which Only candidates who are considered “patriotic” by the government can be nominated – criticized by various activists, foreign governments and rights groups.

Hong Kong government leaders are urging people to vote, saying the poll is significant. They stressed the need to revise it as a security law introduced last year to ensure stability after long protests that rocked the Asian financial center in 2019.

He has been involved in election debates, on Saturday the government sent general text messages to Hong Kong residents asking them to vote for the people and called on some critics to stay away in protest.

It is a crime in Hong Kong to encourage someone not to vote or to cast an invalid vote.

Early indications were that the turnout was much lower than in the last legislative elections in 2016, according to Reuters news agency witnesses.

Turnout in the previous election was 58 per cent, and 43.6 per cent in 2000 was the lowest since Britain returned the city to China in 1997.

Some of the first to vote when the polls opened at 08:30 (0030 GMT) said they were keen to fulfill their civic duty to ensure stability.

Tam Po-chu, a 79-year-old language teacher at the university, said he hoped the new board would respond to the public. “They’re worthless if they don’t think about the people of Hong Kong,” he said.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, among the first to vote, told reporters at a polling station in the Mid-Levels suburbs that the government had “set no goal” on the turnout, and was unaware of what the Chinese leadership had set.

The Beijing City Liaison Office did not respond to requests from Reuters to comment on voter turnout.

Before Lam spoke, several protesters from the Social Democratic League’s opposition group approached the universal suffrage protests and waved a banner saying “forced to remain silent … spirit of freedom, vote with your conscience.”

Security was tight in the city, with about 10,000 police and 40,000 workers in government elections deployed. Police Chief Raymond Siu told reporters that the massive deployment in hundreds of polling stations in the city would ensure that voting would be safe and smooth.

Secretary-General John Lee, the former head of security, has called on the public to take part, saying the outcasts were “traitors” who wanted the vote to fail.

In the run-up to the election, more than 10 people have been arrested for allegedly pushing people to cast a white vote, including re-posting messages from others on social media, according to government statements.