Thread by @rhokilpatrick

The turnout for District Council elections this morning is absolutely unprecedented. The queue at my local polling station does a complete lap around the housing estate. I didn’t have to line up *at all* to vote in the last election. Demographics are a cross-section of society.

As promised, there are riot police here in militarised garb but they’re not masked, wielding shields, or pointing batons/other weapons anywhere so the equivalent of your neighbourhood bobby in today’s HK. In fact they’re on their phones—estate security are doing all the work.

Yesterday in Stanley was the first time in months I saw police in regular blue uniforms walking their beat on foot. It’s noteworthy that officers’ fear of doxxing isn’t based on the fact they’re policing but *how* they’re policing.

Two hours later, civic duty performed ☑️

The peace today and in the lead up to the election is enough to make one wonder whether more democracy might be part of the solution to this crisis.

I hope that everyone who thinks so uses this opportunity to vote. We don’t get many.

By 1100 this morning over one million people (of just over four million registered voters) had already cast their ballot, according to NOW. That’s a turnout of nearly 25%—up from about 13% at this time on polling day during the last #HKDCElection. A promising start.

Amazing. Latest voter turnout statistics issued at 1930 have hit about 64%—1.7 times the turnout in the last election. With the three hours remaining until polls close at 2230, this could easily be over two times. This is already an historic event.

l.hkott.hk/zh-hk/l/open-c…

We did it—voter turnout has broken the 70% target, settling at 71.2% when polls closed at 2230. Almost 3 million come out to vote. Whichever way this goes, Hongkongers have shown how strongly they feel about political issues and how highly they value representative government.

Results are still coming in for the #HKDCElection but what we’re seeing already is astonishing: the pro-Beijing camp has lost 100s of seats. All of HK is a sea of yellow. This has been called a referendum on the protests and Lam’s government and the verdict couldn’t be clearer.

For six months, I’ve heard pro-government voices doggedly clench to the myth of the “Silent Majority."

"Sure, 2 million came out to march against the government,” they will insist, "but 5 million didn’t."

Today, we can decisively put the myth of the “Silent Majority” to rest.

As polls opened pundits warned against optimism by pro-democrats, cautioning that many were sick of the chaos and disruption and may flock to law-and-order candidates.

They were half right: people have had enough, but they don’t blame protesters—they blame the gov't and police.

Even the outlying islands have gone yellow!

Despite its reputation as a haven for hippies—most of whom, anecdotally, can’t/don’t vote—Lamma has again elected a DAB rep.

But Cheung Chau, voting as a single block for the first time,
has emerged as the true island of democracy.

Democrats have won majority control of 17/18 of HK’s District Councils. The only exception is the Island district, where despite dems taking 60% of the popular vote they will still be outnumbered due to the presence of unelected ex officio councillors drawn from Rural Committees.

Results have just come in from the last #HKDCElection constituency Lam Tin. There, pro-gov't Kan Ming Tung beat his pro-democracy rival by just 30 votes. Last night saw a furore at the polling station due to (repudiated) reports that the votes cast exceeded the registered voters.