Post-Occupy surge in young voters during Hong Kong’s 2016 Legco elections
Turnout among those aged 18 to 20 rose by 16 percentage points, but older voters still dominated ballot
Voters aged between 18 and 20 clocked the biggest surge in the turnout rate during last year’s Legislative Council elections, up 16 percentage points on the 2012 polls, new figures have revealed.
But despite that bounce, elderly and middle-aged people still easily cast the lion’s share of votes. September’s polls had 150,763 more voters aged 61 or above than five years earlier, dwarfing the number of new voters aged between 18 and 40 by 11,447.
It was the highest turnout since direct elections began in 1991. Some 58 per cent of the electorate – 2.2 million people – cast a vote, up 5 percentage points from 2012.
The Legco elections were the first since the pro-democracy Occupy protests in 2014, and returned six young lawmakers advocating self-determination for Hong Kong, including student activist Nathan Law Kwun-chung.
Numbers released by the Registration and Electoral Office showed 65 per cent of Hongkongers aged between 66 and 70 voted in September, as that age group continued to top the turnout rate table.
Generally youngsters lag behind the overall turnout. But bucking that trend, 59 per cent of people aged between 26 and 35 voted, 1 percentage point above the average.
