Hong Kong's latest district election draws lowest turnout

Transcript

00:00 Hong Kong's first district elections for patriots yielded a 27.5% voter turnout,

00:06 the government announced earlier today. It was the lowest ever turnout for such

00:10 polls that this year simply shut out all opposition candidates from joining.

00:16 The last city district elections held in 2019 prior to the pandemic and at the peak of the

00:21 massive democratic protest drew a voter turnout north of 70% that yielded an electoral landslide

00:29 victory for the democracy protesters. Today's deflating voter turnout confirms

00:34 voter disappointment and despair on Hong Kong's electoral exercises and how over seven of ten

00:41 individuals made a statement of how the polls do not factor in the government's belief that the

00:47 status quo is quite okay. Over 70% of candidates who joined today's electoral exercises came from

00:54 the nominating committees. Three members of the League of Social Democrats, one of the last

00:59 remaining opposition groups said they planned to stage protests but were immediately arrested

01:05 even before they could show up for the event.