Hong Kong Voting: An Unhelpful Guide

This past Sunday was election day in Hong Kong, in which a whopping 58% of the city voted for the Legislative Council, aka "Legco." 58% is a good number a for legislative election, don't you think? Hong Kong takes pride in its politics, despite the election season seeming to only be about two months long, in contrast to the mandatory 2 years in the States (4 for Presidential elections). Over the past few weeks I've seen countless young volunteers bowing while handing out literature at the malls and MTR stops. Vans with candidates' faces emblazoned on the sides would bound down the streets megaphoning campaign propaganda in indecipherable Cantonese. Thanks to the residual energy from the "Occupy Central" and independence movements, many 20-somethings were running for office this time around.

I was so moved by this aura of civic duty that I wanted to vote myself, though of course they wouldn't have allowed this, me being merely a non-permanent resident. Despite this wicked disenfranchisement, I found myself glued to the Hong Kong Free Press webpage on Monday to watch the live results. It was immediately apparent that I never would have even known to vote for in the "New Territories, East" constituency, let alone understand how elections even work in this city. This is because Hong Kong politics MAKE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE. There are about forty-thousand damn parties each with names ranging from the sensible, such as the "New People's Party," to the ones reminiscent of late-90s Christian pop bands (looking at you,"Youngspiration"). To simplify things, the media usually divides this morass into the "Establishment," "Pan-democrat," and, more recently, the ""Localist" blocs. The Pan-Dems have been the traditional opposition bloc, usually less-than-enamored with Beijing and its policies, but after the results of this election they will have to make space for these insurgent young Localists and their more radical views.

Even more peculiar, only about half of the seats in the Legco are "geographical" constituencies up for direct vote. The other half are elected by "functional" constituencies that represent members of certain trade groups, such as agriculture, insurance, and even art. There's no constituency for clergy (perhaps wise) but some religious leaders are appointed to vote along with another thousand-or-so lucky elites to select the Beijing-approved Chief Executive in that election. As odd as it sounds, Hong Kong's odd electoral process would seem to ameliorate certain problems, such those that arise from corporate and union lobbying. Why spend millions of dollars trying to influence a dingbat poli-sci major/law grad when you get to select your own rep who knows the industry? (well, I guess one patsy probably wouldn't be enough) Another benefit of such an indirect process is that it lowers the risk of nutjobs possibly being elected, unlike in CERTAIN OTHER COUNTRIES.