Voter turnout in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election was affected by the city’s deadliest fire in decades, recording the second-lowest rate since the 1997 handover despite a modest rise from the previous poll, the constitutional affairs chief has said.
Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang Kwok-wai stressed on Sunday that the government had not set a “hard indicator” for the turnout rate in the 2025 Legco poll, which reached 31.9 per cent.
“I believe the fire had an impact on the election … We understand that there are different views. Some said they did not have the mood to vote amid a heavy atmosphere, while some hoped the Legco could be formed as soon as possible for follow-up works and reforms to turn grief and sorrow into strength and vote enthusiastically,” Tsang told a radio show.
“It is difficult to generalise the fire’s impact on the election. However, people were keen to vote even after the fire. The government feels glad about it.”
Despite extensive government efforts to promote the latest poll, the turnout rate was only slightly higher than the record low of 30.2 per cent set in 2021, the lowest since the city’s return to Chinese rule.
Although the turnout rate improved, the number of voters declined by 2.4 per cent to about 1.32 million, while the total number of registered voters dropped by 340,000, or 7.6 per cent, to about 4.13 million compared with four years ago.
