Border voting set as turnout fears denied

Polling stations will be set up at border control points for Hongkongers in the mainland to vote in next month's Legislative Council elections under a closed-loop system, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said.

The government will set up temporary polling stations at land ports that are currently closed, including Lo Wu and Lok Ma Chau control points.

"Those who wish to vote at these polling stations must register, and they will be subject to a closed-loop management at the land port to stop them from leaving the polling station and entering the SAR community," Lam said yesterday.

Voters must also return to the mainland immediately to be exempted from undergoing quarantine, she said, with details on the polling stations to be announced this week.

"I must emphasize that this is a one-off measure, which I believe will be quite popular, and it is solely to make voting for Hongkongers in the mainland more convenient rather than boosting the turnout," Lam said.

"In fact, the number of voters using these polling stations will not be huge, therefore it will not affect the voter turnout too much."

A retired Hongkonger living in Dongguan welcomed the arrangement, as the cost would be too much if he has to be quarantined to cast a vote.

"There are a lot of Hongkongers [in Dongguan] who have every intention of voting and have been resenting the potential loss of their right to vote due to the pandemic," he said.

Lam also said the government did not plan to combine the voter turnout for the three Legco constituencies and insisted that it is in fact opposed to the move.

This came after Tian Feilong, director of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, proposed combining the turnouts for the Election Committee and the functional and geographical constituencies.

Lam said: "Residents are used to the voting rates being announced separately divided by the three main constituencies, therefore we will stick to that."

With over four million registered voters in the December 19 Legco election, the seats elected are a record high of 90 and each seat will see competition. Therefore, she said, voting and ballot counting will be more complicated.

"We have to make sure we make no mistakes in those procedures, and I have already demanded the Electoral Affairs Commission treat this election solemnly and seriously," Lam said.

However, a survey found that only 52 percent of 838 respondents intended to vote.

That's a 30-year low and a nearly 30 percent drop from the 80 percent average in recent years.

The Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute poll also found 60 percent of respondents do not know which geographical constituency they belong to, and only 40 percent know at least one of the candidates running in their constituency.