HONG KONG: Turnout is expected to be low for Hong Kong’s “patriots only” legislative election on Sunday, with subdued political campaigning as the population reels from the city’s deadliest blaze in decades that has killed 159 people so far.
Volunteers tentatively handed out flyers and hung banners outside subway stations and crowded intersections on Friday, but they were largely ignored by residents. Campaigning activities were suspended for a few days following last week’s fire.
“This accident, of course, can influence the attendance of the election ... (Hong Kongers) don’t have the interest, the eagerness to elect people,” said C.K. Lau, an 82-year-old retiree.
The vote has been viewed by some analysts as a test of legitimacy for the Hong Kong government as it tries to soothe public anger over the fire and oversee an ongoing national security crackdown.
Locals said they were angry and traumatized after authorities admitted that substandard building materials used during renovation work at the high-rise estate in northern Tai Po district were responsible for fueling the blaze.
“Everyone’s mood is so heavy right now,” said May Li, 48. “How can we still talk about holding an election under these circumstances? It definitely has to be postponed.”
The last Legislative Council elections in 2021 recorded the lowest voter turnout — 30.2 percent — since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
On Thursday, Hong Kong’s national security office urged residents to “actively participate in voting,” saying it is critical in supporting government post-disaster reconstruction efforts.
“Every voter is a stakeholder in the homeland of Hong Kong,” a statement said. “If you truly love Hong Kong, you will vote sincerely.”
Four people were arrested for inciting others not to vote, the city’s anti-corruption body said on Thursday. A further three were arrested for the same offense on November 20, according to a previous statement from the body.
National security authorities have also repeatedly warned against attempts to “exploit” the fire to incite another “color revolution,” referring to the 2019 pro-democracy protests that roiled the city.
Publicly inciting a vote boycott was criminalized in 2021 as part of sweeping electoral reforms that effectively squeezed out pro-democracy voices from the city’s 90-seat legislature.
Coming after Beijing imposed a national security law on the city in 2020, the reforms ensured that only pro-Beijing candidates — “patriots” — could run and further reduced the space for meaningful democratic participation by Hong Kong residents, analysts say.
Pan-democrat voters — who traditionally made up about 60 percent of Hong Kong’s electorate — have since shunned the elections.
The number of registered voters for Sunday’s polls — 4.13 million — has also dropped for the fourth consecutive year since 2021, when a peak of 4.47 million people were registered.
The current term of the Legislative Council ends on December 31. If the election were delayed, a vacuum period could emerge, making it difficult to maintain a functional lawmaking body.
Hong Kong faces low election turnout as residents mourn deadly fire
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Hong Kong faces low election turnout as residents mourn deadly fire
- Locals said they were angry and traumatized after authorities admitted that substandard building materials used during renovation work at the high-rise estate in northern Tai Po district were responsible for fueling the blaze
Rubio meets Caribbean leaders as US raises pressure on Cuba
Basseterre: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will seek to address Caribbean leaders' concerns about Cuba at a summit on Wednesday, as Washington ramps up pressure on the communist island fresh after removing Venezuela's president.
Rubio, a Cuban-American who has spent his political career hoping to topple Havana's government, is also looking for sustained cooperation on Venezuela and troubled Haiti as he takes part in the summit of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, which does not include Cuba.
After attending President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to Congress, Rubio flew overnight to join the summit in Saint Kitts and Nevis, a sun-kissed former British colony of fewer than 50,000 people.
Rubio became the highest-ranking US official ever to visit the tiny country, the birthplace of one of the United States' founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton.
Trump has reoriented foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere through his "Donroe Doctrine" in which he has vowed unrepentant intervention to advance US interests.
After US forces snatched Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro in a January 3 raid, the Latin American country has been forced to cut off its crucial oil shipments to Cuba.
This has plunged Cuba into a further economic morass with fuel shortages and rolling blackouts.
Speaking at the opening of the CARICOM summit on Tuesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned that a further deterioration in Cuba will impact stability across the Caribbean and trigger migration -- the top political concern for Trump.
"Humanitarian suffering serves no one," Holness said. "A prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba."
Plea for 'stability'
Holness said that Jamaica believed in democracy and free markets -- a rebuke to the communist system in Havana -- but called for "humanitarian relief" for Cubans.
"Jamaica supports constructive dialogue between Cuba and the United States aimed at de-escalation, reform and stability," he said.
"We believe there is space, perhaps more space now than in years past, for pragmatic engagement."
The summit's host, Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, also called for humanitarian backing to Cuba, saying: "A destabilized Cuba will destabilize all of us."
A medical doctor, Drew studied for seven years in Cuba and said friends there have told him of food scarcity, power outages and garbage strewn in the streets.
"I can only feel the pain of those who treated me so well when I was a student," he said.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuba almost continuously since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
Since becoming the top US diplomat, Rubio has publicly toned down calls for regime change, and Washington has quietly held discussions with Havana.
Trump and Rubio have threatened sanctions against countries that sell oil to Cuba but stopped short of enacting some measures pushed by Cuban-American hardline critics of Havana, such as prohibiting the transfer of remittances.
'Elephant in the room'
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said she empathized with the Cuban people but took issue with her Jamaican counterpart's remarks.
"We cannot advocate for others to live under communism and dictatorship," she said.
She also criticized CARICOM countries for their reticence, at least publicly, to back what she called the "elephant in the room" -- US intervention in Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago, whose coast is visible from Venezuela, gave access to the US military in the run-up to the operation that removed Maduro.
The deposed Venezuelan leader faces US charges of narco-trafficking, which he denies.
Persad-Bissessar thanked Trump, Rubio "and the US military... for standing firm against narco-trafficking, human and arms smuggling."
The Trump administration has been carrying out deadly strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, drawing criticism by those who say the attacks are legally and ethically dubious.
The Trinidadian prime minister praised the US approach and credited it with bringing down her country's homicide rate by helping cut the flow of firearms from Venezuela.
