Hong Kong election body finds ex-opposition sectors cast more than 10 per cent of invalid ballots in Legislative Council poll
- Electoral Affairs Commission recorded more than 30,000 invalid votes from December election
- But pro-Beijing think tank says most opposition supporters appeared to have abstained from voting rather than cast invalid ballots
Professional sectors which used to favour opposition parties accounted for more than 10 per cent of the invalid votes cast in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election last year according to data from the first poll since Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system.
According to a report released on Tuesday by the Electoral Affairs Commission, a total of 27,453 invalid votes, including 14,561 which were blank, came from geographical constituencies during the December election.
Meanwhile, an additional 3,261 invalid ballots belonged to the voters from sector-based functional constituencies, made up mostly of special interest groups.
In the education sector, 1,428 voters cast invalid ballots during the election, while in the legal and accountancy constituencies, the figures were 216 and 474, respectively.
The medical and health services functional constituency cast 237 invalid votes, while the social welfare interest group handed in 484 invalid ballots.
Before Beijing’s “patriots-only” overhaul of the electoral system, the five sectors were largely led by opposition lawmakers or legislators who did not identify as pro-establishment.
