Hong Kong officials are stepping up efforts to improve voter turnout ahead of the upcoming Legislative Council election, apparently inspired by Macao’s “successful electoral experience,” according to Lo Man-tuen, a special counsellor to the think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation and a leading establishment figure.
Lo said that Hong Kong officials had been studying Macao’s voter mobilisation strategies, which resulted in 53.35 percent turnout in September.
While that was Macao’s third-lowest showing since its 1999 handover, it was significantly better than Hong Kong’s historic low of just 30.2 percent in 2021.
[See more: Macao’s 2025 legislative election breaks vote count record, but turnout remains low]
Lo, whose comments were reported by local media earlier this week, also noted the central government’s interest in the Hong Kong elections’ success.
Lots of community groups and institutions are now preparing citywide campaigns to encourage voter participation, Lo added. He expressed confidence that the central government’s call for residents to actively participate would help push voter turnout beyond the previous election’s level.
Hong Kong’s legislative election will take place on 7 December. The legislature is made up of 90 seats; 20 elected directly by the public, and 70 indirectly elected by selected groups of professionals, corporate representatives, and a government appointed election committee.
