Hong Kong elections: Carrie Lam promises ‘open mind’ after election rout

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Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam has said the government will “seriously reflect” after local elections saw massive gains by pro-democracy candidates.

 

Seventeen of the 18 district councils are now controlled by pro-democracy councillors, according to local media.

 

The election, the first since the wave of anti-Beijing protests began, saw an unprecedented turnout of more than 71%.

 

It is being seen as a stinging rebuke of Ms Lam’s leadership and a show of support for the protest movement.

 

Hong Kong has seen months of increasingly violent protests since Ms Lam tried to introduce a controversial bill enabling extradition to China.

 

In a statement released online on Monday, Ms Lam said the government respected the results.

 

She said many felt the results reflected “people’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society”.

 

The government would “listen to the opinions of members of the public humbly and seriously reflect”, she said.

 

The territory’s district councillors have little political power and mainly deal with local issues such as bus routes and rubbish collection, so the district elections do not normally generate such interest.

 

But the councillors also get to choose 117 of their number to sit on the 1,200-member committee that selects Hong Kong’s chief executive, who is then formally appointed by the Chinese government.

 

The landslide results mean all of those 117 seats are now likely to go to pro-democracy candidates, so they will have a greater influence over that decision, which is set to be made in 2022.

 

But the result is also highly symbolic, as it was the first opportunity for people to express at the ballot box their view of Ms Lam’s handling of the crisis.

 

The government, and China’s leaders in Beijing, had been hoping the election would bring a show of support from the so-called “silent majority” which they say disapproves of the protests.

 

But that did not materialise – instead some high-profile pro-Beijing candidates lost their seats as voters overwhelmingly backed pro-democracy candidates.

 

The hope from activists is that the overwhelming victory of anti-establishment parties will force the government to take their demands more seriously.

 

So what now? Will the protests resume? It seems almost certain they will, unless the government starts responding to protesters’ demands.

 

Carrie Lam has acknowledged that the results show dissatisfaction with her administration, and promised to listen in a spirit of humility. But she can only make concessions if China agrees. Beijing may prefer to see her replaced by a less toxic figure.

 

But there are challenges too for the opposition. The new intake of young councillors will have to take on the responsibility of addressing local concerns, like public transport and other amenities, rather than the grander ideals of democracy.

 

They will need to work together more effectively than they have in the past, and work out how the demands and tactics of more radical protesters can most effectively be channelled to get concessions from a Chinese central government unnerved by yet another show of defiance in Hong

Kong.