Hong Kong’s leader said she respects the results of local elections in which pro-democracy forces scored a sweeping victory and said she would reflect on them seriously.Beijing-friendly executive Carrie Lam issued a statement Monday saying the government would listen humbly to the opinions of the members of the public after Sunday’s local elections that saw a record number of voters deliver a stunning rebuke to Beijing.
 
“Quite a few are of the view that the results reflect people’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society,” Lam said.The government will “listen to the opinions of members of the public humbly and seriously reflect”, her statement said.During Sunday’s elections, opposition candidates won nearly 90 percent of contested seats, according to public broadcaster RTHK. The democrats will now control 17 of 18 district councils, after having previously controlled zero.Supporters of pro-democracy candidate Angus Wong celebrate after he won in district council elections in Hong Kong, early Nov. 25, 2019.The vote was a major symbolic blow to pro-China forces that dominate Hong Kong politics, and the latest evidence of continued public support for a five-month-old pro-democracy movement that has become increasingly aggressive.“Hong Kongers have spoken out, loud and clear. The international community must acknowledge that, almost six months in, public opinion has NOT turned against the movement,” student activist Joshua Wong said on Twitter.This is historic. Early returns suggest a landslide victory for the opposition camp. Hong Kongers have spoken out, loud and clear. The international community must acknowledge that, almost six months in, public opinion has NOT turned against the movement. https://t.co/zHFfC85YgC— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 ? (@joshuawongcf) November 24, 2019″This is a sweeping victory, far beyond people’s expectations,” David Zweig, professor emeritus at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said.The vote will not significantly change the balance of power in Hong Kong’s quasi-democratic political system. District council members have no power to pass legislation; they deal mainly with hyperlocal issues, such as noise complaints and bus stop locations.However, the district council vote is seen as one of the most reliable indicators of public opinion, since it is the only fully democratic election in Hong Kong.Hong Kong’s Beijing-friendly executive Carrie Lam issued a statement saying the government respects the results of the election, and that it would listen humbly to the opinions of the members of the public and reflect on them seriously.People line up to vote in district council elections in South Horizons in Hong Kong, China November 23, 2019. REUTERS/Laurel ChorMassive turnoutNearly 3 million people voted in the election — a record high for Hong Kong, and more than double the turnout of the previous district council election in 2015.Voters formed long lines that snaked around city blocks outside polling stations across the territory, many waiting more than an hour to vote.“This amount of people I’ve never seen. There are so many people,” said Felix, who works in the real estate industry and voted in the central business district.By nighttime, most of the long lines at voting stations had tapered off, but nearby sidewalks remained filled with candidates and their supporters who held signs and chanted slogans in an attempt to persuade passersby to cast last-minute votes.“I’m tired, but I think it’s more important to fight,” said Elvis Yam, who waited in line for an hour to vote in the morning and then volunteered to hold a campaign sign for a pro-democracy candidate in the University District.WATCH: Hong Kong election results
Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Forces Score Landslide Win video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkPolice promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. But outside many polling stations, there was no visible police presence. At others, teams of riot police waited in nearby vans. There were no reports of major clashes.Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters engaging in fierce clashes with police.The vote shows that, despite the violence, Hong Kong society continues to support the push for democratic reforms, said Zweig, who heads Transnational China Consulting.“If the government itself doesn’t respond in some significant way, you’re going to get your million man march again. You’re going to get people back on the streets,” he said.Wider impact?Even though district councils have little power, the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future.District councilors are able to select a small number of people to the 1,200-member election committee that chooses Hong Kong’s chief executive. They also have the ability to select or run for certain seats in the Legislative Council.Candidates from pro-Beijing political party bow to apologize for their defeat in the local district council election in Hong Kong, Nov. 25, 2019.“That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.”Hong Kong saw a major surge in voter registration, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year, the most since at least 2003.Many Hong Kongers are concerned about what they see as an erosion of the “one country, two systems” policy that Beijing has used to govern Hong Kong since it was returned by Britain in 1997.China said it is committed to the “one country, two systems” principle, but has slammed the protesters as rioters. In some cases, Chinese state media have compared the protesters to the terror groups Taliban or Islamic State.In an apparent response to the Hong Kong elections, the People’s Daily, a Communist Party-controlled paper, posted a video on Twitter documenting what it said was the U.S. history of intervention in foreign elections, including in Hong Kong.U.S. President Donald Trump has been inconsistent when talking about the protests, in some cases calling them riots and in other cases saying he supports them.Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for all sides to refrain from violence, but said the Hong Kong government “bears primary responsibility” for the conflict. 
 
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The Chinese government has detained more than a million Uighurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities for what it calls voluntary job training. But a newly revealed classified blueprint shows that the camps Beijing runs in China’s far west are instead secret centers for forced ideological and behavioral re-education.The confidential documents, leaked to a consortium of international journalists, lay out the Chinese government’s deliberate strategy to lock up minorities, most of whom are Muslims, to rewire their thoughts and even the language they speak.The documents stipulate watch towers, double-locked doors and blanket video surveillance “to prevent escapes.” They describe an elaborate scoring system that grades detainees on how well they speak the dominant Mandarin language, memorize ideology and adhere to strict rules on everything down to bathing and using the toilet.FILE.- A guard tower and barbed wire fences are seen around a facility in the Kunshan Industrial Park in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region, Dec. 3, 2018. This is one of a growing number of internment camps in Xinjiang.They also show how Beijing is pioneering a new form of social control using data and artificial intelligence. With the help of mass surveillance technology, computers issued the names of tens of thousands of people for interrogation or detention in just one week, including university students and party officials who wouldn’t need vocational training.Taken as a whole, the documents give the most significant description yet of how the mass detention camps work in the words of the Chinese government itself.’Form of cultural genocide’Experts say they spell out a vast system that targets, surveils and grades entire ethnicities to forcibly assimilate them – especially Uighurs, a Turkic minority of about 10 million with their own language and culture.“They confirm that this is a form of cultural genocide,” said Adrian Zenz, a leading security expert in the far western region of Xinjiang, where many Uighurs live. “It really shows that from the onset, the Chinese government had a plan.”Zenz said the documents echo the aim of the camps as outlined in a 2017 report from a local branch of the Xinjiang Ministry of Justice: To “wash brains, cleanse hearts, support the right, remove the wrong.”’People’s War on Terror’China has struggled for decades to control Xinjiang, where hundreds, both Uighurs and Han Chinese, have died in terror attacks, reprisals and race riots. In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched what he called a “People’s War on Terror” in response to terror attacks carried out by radical Uighur militants.In late 2016, the crackdown intensified dramatically when Xi named Chen Quanguo, a hardline official transferred from Tibet, as Xinjiang’s new head. Most of the documents were issued in 2017.“Since the measures have been taken, there’s no single terrorist incident in the past three years,” said a written response from the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom. “Xinjiang is much safer….The so-called leaked documents are fabrication and fake news.”The statement said that religious freedom and the personal freedom of detainees was “fully respected” in Xinjiang.The documents came from an anonymous source, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists verified them by consulting experts, cross-checking content and comparing signatures. They consist of a notice with guidelines for the camps, four bulletins on how to use technology to target people, and a court case sentencing a local Uighur party official to 10 years in prison for telling colleagues not to say dirty words, watch porn or eat without praying.Issued to rank-and-file officials by the powerful Xinjiang Communist Party Political and Legal Affairs Commission, the documents confirm what is known about the camps from the testimony of Uighurs and Kazakhs, satellite imagery and highly restricted visits by journalists to the region.Erzhan Qurban, a Chinese-born ethnic Kazakh, was held for nine months because he had spent time abroad in Kazakhstan. Qurban said he was locked in a cell with 10 others last year, forced to sit rigidly for hours and forbidden to pray or even talk.“It wasn’t education, it was just punishment,” said Qurban. “I was treated like animal.”Other detainees have said there was torture or rape at the camps.’Extreme surveillance’The documents show direct links between the internment camps and the extreme digital surveillance in Xinjiang. One document states that the purpose of the surveillance is “to prevent problems before they happen.”FILE – Residents walk past a security checkpoint at the close of a open air market in Kashgar in western China’s Xinjiang region, Nov. 4, 2017. Authorities are using data-driven surveillance to impose a digital police state in Xinjiang.This is done through a system called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform or IJOP, built by a state-owned military contractor. The IJOP spat out the names of people considered suspicious for behavior that includes going abroad, asking others to pray or using cell phone apps that cannot be monitored by the government. These people were then called in for questioning and funneled into different parts of the system, from house arrest to detention centers with three levels of monitoring to prison.Forced indoctrinationOnce inside, the documents show, detainees are subject to forced indoctrination.The first item listed as part of the curriculum is ideological education. It is partly rooted in the ancient Chinese belief in transformation through education – taken before to terrifying extremes during the mass thought reform campaigns of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution.The indoctrination goes along with “manner education,” where behavior is dictated, including ensuring “timely haircuts and shaves,” “regular change of clothes” and “bathing once or twice a week.” The tone, experts say, echoes a general perception by the Han Chinese government that Uighurs are prone to violence and need to be civilized.FILE.- A police station is seen by the front gate of the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center in Artux in western China’s Xinjiang region, Dec. 3, 2018.Mandarin is mandated. Detainees are frequently tested on Mandarin, ideology and discipline, and their scores feed into a point system tracked by computer. Detainees who do well are to be rewarded with perks like family visits and early graduation, and those who do poorly are to be sent to a stricter “management area” with longer detention times.Students go for “vocational skills improvement” only after at least one year of learning ideology, law and Mandarin. After they leave, the documents say, every effort should be made to get them jobs. Some detainees describe being forced to sign work contracts for low pay.Independent experts on Chinese law say the detentions are a clear violation of China’s own laws.“They’re not even trying to justify this legally,” said Maggie Lewis, a professor of Chinese law at Seton Hall University. “This is arbitrary.” 
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State-controlled media in China on Monday downplayed the landslide electoral victory claimed by pan democrats in Hong Kong with an editorial calling the race an “unfair… manipulation.”But such pro-Beijing propaganda and narratives were snubbed by many Chinese netizens, who urged Beijing to wake up to the reality that anti-China sentiment in the former British colony is real and rising.  
 Supporters of pro-democracy candidate Angus Wong celebrate after he won in district council elections in Hong Kong, early Monday, Nov. 25, 2019.With a record 71% turnout rate, nearly 3 million Hong Kongers cast their votes on Sunday. Poll results on Monday showed that the pro-democracy camp claimed more than 380 seats out of a total of 452 seats in 18 local district councils while the rival pro-Beijing camp retained only 58 seats, according to local media reports.  
 Vote of no confidence
 
The results were widely seen as a vote of no confidence in the city’s chief executive Carrie Lam and the Beijing government behind her.
 
Nevertheless, Global Times, China’s nationalist tabloid, said in an editorial that “it is crucial to rationally interpret” the elections results, “lest mobs should be emboldened by misreading them,” citing the narrower-than-expected gap between actual votes won by the pan democratic and the pro-establishment camp at a total of 1.66 million versus 1.22 million votes.The mouthpiece paper argued that the city’s political unrest in recent months is conducive for pro-democracy activists to rally support, which then triggered irrational political energy and exerted pressure on pro-Beijing candidates.
 
The West had also weighed in to fuel the city’s anti-Beijing sentiment, it noted, pointing figures at Australia media and the U.K.’s BBC for having respectively unveiled a defecting Chinese spy’s infiltration work and the torture story of a former staff of the British Consulate in Hong Kong.
 
“They are intended to influence public opinion,” the paper said, adding that the U.S. Congress’s speedy passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act also targeted at Sunday’s elections.
 
The paper concluded that “whatever the ups and downs in Hong Kong polls…they can’t impact the basic framework of ‘one country, two systems.”
 The West’s manipulation?
 
Sharing similar views, another veteran pro-Beijing paper Ta Kung Pao further called Sunday’s race “unfair and unjust,” “politicized” and “highly manipulated by the West.”
 
It then concluded that “the election won’t alter the fundamental landscape of Hong Kong society… neither will it change the fact that Hong Kong is a special district under China,” urging Hong Kong citizens to be patriotic.
 
Both editorials have attracted hundreds of online comments on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging site.
 
But readers’ feedback was apparently censored as the only message that remains on both editorials’ comment page is “apologies, the content currently can’t be viewed.”   
 
In spite of China’s censorship, some Chinese netizens managed to have their comments about the city’s election results heard in other postings.
 
A Weibo user wrote: “CCTV and Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong keep saying that the ‘one country, two systems” scheme is successful. Indeed, [the part about] two systems work, but [the part about] one country has completely failed.” 
Rising anti-China sentiment
 
One user wrote “Hong Kong has become another Taiwan. Anti-China sentiment has reflected mainstream public opinion in Hong Kong. [China should] stop fooling yourself” while another said that the results have proved that “the majority of people there dislike violence, but they dislike China more.”FILE – Police in riot gear move through a cloud of smoke as they detain a protester at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.Nationalist views toward the election results were also available on Weibo with users giving comments such as “I love my country, but I don’t love Hong Kong” or “I’m really disappointed at Hong Kong. What a white-eyed wolf [ingrate]!” 
Wake up to reality
 
If viewpoints expressed by Chinese state media reflect the thinking of the Beijing government, authorities in China should wake up to see the reality, said Richard Tsoi, vice chairman of Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movement of China.
 
He said that Beijing “definitely continues to have a kind of misunderstanding about the attitudes of Hong Kong people. [Election results show] Hong Kong people are very disappointed at the government’s performance.”
 
“Fundamentally, it’s about the illusion of the implementation of one country, two systems, and the failing promise of keeping Hong Kong a full democracy,” he added.  
 
With the latest mandate from the people, the pan democratic camp will strive to push Lam’s administration to meet key demands proposed by protesters, which includes universal suffrage to elect members of the city’s legislative council and the chief executive, Tsoi said.
 
He also urged Beijing to ease its grip of control in Hong Kong, or, the city’s political unrest will continue — a tall order that Beijing appears to find it hard to accept.
 
Speaking in Tokyo after a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned that “any attempt to mess up Hong Kong, or even damage its prosperity and stability, will not succeed,” the South China Morning Post reported.
 
“It is clear that no matter what happens, Hong Kong is a part of China,” the minister was cited as saying.  He had previously accused the U.S. of interfering with China’s internal affairs.
 
Also reacting cautiously, Hu Xijing, editor-in-chief of Global Times, tweeted to say “it’s hoped that they [pan democracts] will… stop radical street politics. It’s also hoped the election will be a turning point in ending the riots.”
 
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A summit this week between leaders of Pacific Rim allies South Korea and the Philippines is expected to show that both lean toward the West rather than China despite their efforts to get along with Asia’s superpower, analysts say.A swing toward the West by either country would put Beijing further on the back foot in Asia, where its military expansion alarms multiple governments, and give the United States a new opening to get involved in the region, scholars believe.Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on his office’s website November 20 he will meet his Korean counterpart at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations-South Korea summit in Busan Monday through Wednesday. Asian security issues will lead discussion, it said.“The Philippines and Korea both have been fairly accommodating of China, because Korea given its proximity and Duterte because he wanted to make the best deals,” said Jeffrey Kingston, history instructor at Temple University’s Japan campus.Now, he said, “both of them are countries that feel concerned about the rise of China. Both feel threatened.”Ties with ChinaDuterte broke ice with China in 2016 by setting aside a maritime sovereignty dispute and accepting pledges of $24 billion in Chinese aid, key to his country’s infrastructure renewal effort. But Chinese activity in the disputed South China Sea including a boat collision earlier this year is worrying Filipinos again.South Korea spars with China over ties with North Korea. The north, a Chinese ally, periodically tests missiles near the south, and in 2017 Beijing condemned the south for installing an advanced antimissile system. Chinese officials feared the U.S.-backed system could monitor activity in China.FILE – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, meet at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China, Aug. 29, 2019.China and South Korea separately dispute sovereignty over a tiny island, and South Korea’s coast guard has fired on Chinese fishing boats. However, the two sides, separated by just a few hundred kilometers, agreed last month to improve relations and pursue denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.“Although Korea has its own problems with China, especially with fishing and some islands, they’re handling it very, very differently from us,” Jay Batongbacal, international maritime affairs professor at University of the Philippines.US alliancesThe two leaders are expected to talk about China this week.“The equilibrium of geopolitics will be high on the agenda including issues such as the tension in the Korean Peninsula and the Spratly Islands,” Manila’s presidential website quotes Duterte saying. Beijing and Manila dispute sovereignty over the Spratlys, an archipelago in the South China Sea.South Korea and the Philippines, though both historic U.S. military allies in Asia, lack the clout on their own to take any action, said Fabrizio Bozzato, Taiwan Strategy Research Association fellow who specializes in Asia and the Pacific. They might instead jointly support a broader alliance, he said.“I believe that they can be part of a regional U.S.-centric and Japan-centric regional architecture to resist China, but they cannot be the initiator of that,” Bozzato said. “What they have in common really is that they are both allies to the United States and that they are facing China’s pressure.”A top U.S. defense official pledged in June more military cooperation in Asia — and criticized China’s military expansion. Washington regularly sends naval ships to the region as warnings to China.Last month the Philippines joined U.S. and Japanese forces for annual military exercises that news reports from Manila said were designed to keep Asia “free and open,” wording that Washington uses to ask that China quit expanding. Duterte had resisted U.S. help in 2016 and 2017.South Korea answered U.S. lobbying this month by saying it would stay in an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan despite a trade spat with the Japanese government.South Korea still looks to China and the United States for help on North Korea issues, said Steven Kim, visiting research fellow at the Jeju Peace Institute.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, right and South Korea defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, left attend a press conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019.“It will have to carefully calibrate its relations between the two great powers while occasionally hewing closer to one over the other depending on which of its interests are on the line or at stake,” he said.Korean aid to the PhilippinesSince 2017, South Korea has already emerged as a benefactor to the Philippines and their leaders are due to sign four economy-related deals at the summit.Two years ago it offered $1.7 billion in credit and other financial aid to help the Philippines improve transportation and energy. Analysts told VOA Seoul hoped to offset Chinese influence in the developing Southeast Asian country.South Korean companies also build ships for the Philippines as Manila seeks to upgrade its navy. Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries started work this month on a Philippine frigate, news website Navaltoday.com reported. Another frigate is due for delivery in May.“The Philippines is getting a lot of its modernization requirements like ships from Korea,” Batongbacal said.
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Hong Kong pro-democracy forces scored a sweeping victory in local elections Sunday that saw a record number of voters deliver a stunning rebuke to Beijing.Opposition candidates won nearly 90 percent of contested seats, according to public broadcaster RTHK. The democrats will now control 17 of 18 district councils, after having previously controlled zero.The vote was a major symbolic blow to pro-China forces that dominate Hong Kong politics, and the latest evidence of continued public support for a five-month-old pro-democracy movement that has become increasingly aggressive.“Hong Kongers have spoken out, loud and clear. The international community must acknowledge that, almost six months in, public opinion has NOT turned against the movement,” student activist Joshua Wong said on Twitter.This is historic. Early returns suggest a landslide victory for the opposition camp. Hong Kongers have spoken out, loud and clear. The international community must acknowledge that, almost six months in, public opinion has NOT turned against the movement. Candidates from pro-Beijing political party bow to apologize for their defeat in the local district council election in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 25, 2019.Massive turnoutNearly 3 million people voted in the election — a record high for Hong Kong, and more than double the turnout of the previous district council election in 2015.Voters formed long lines that snaked around city blocks outside polling stations across the territory, many waiting more than an hour to vote.“This amount of people I’ve never seen. There are so many people,” said Felix, who works in the real estate industry and voted in the central business district.By nighttime, most of the long lines at voting stations had tapered off, but nearby sidewalks remained filled with candidates and their supporters who held signs and chanted slogans in an attempt to persuade passersby to cast last-minute votes.“I’m tired, but I think it’s more important to fight,” said Elvis Yam, who waited in line for an hour to vote in the morning and then volunteered to hold a campaign sign for a pro-democracy candidate in the University District.Police promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. But outside many polling stations, there was no visible police presence. At others, teams of riot police waited in nearby vans. There were no reports of major clashes.Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters engaging in fierce clashes with police.The vote shows that, despite the violence, Hong Kong society continues to support the push for democratic reforms, said Zweig, who heads Transnational China Consulting.“If the government itself doesn’t respond in some significant way, you’re going to get your million man march again. You’re going to get people back on the streets,” he said.Wider impact?Even though district councils have little power, the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future.District councilors are able to select a small number of people to the 1,200-member election committee that chooses Hong Kong’s chief executive. They also have the ability to select or run for certain seats in the Legislative Council.Supporters of pro-democracy candidate Angus Wong celebrate after he won in district council elections in Hong Kong, early Monday, Nov. 25, 2019.“That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.”Hong Kong saw a major surge in voter registration, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year, the most since at least 2003.Many Hong Kongers are concerned about what they see as an erosion of the “one country, two systems” policy that Beijing has used to govern Hong Kong since it was returned by Britain in 1997.China said it is committed to the “one country, two systems” principle, but has slammed the protesters as rioters. In some cases, Chinese state media have compared the protesters to the terror groups Taliban or Islamic State.In an apparent response to the Hong Kong elections, the People’s Daily, a Communist Party-controlled paper, posted a video on Twitter documenting what it said was the U.S. history of intervention in foreign elections, including in Hong Kong.U.S. President Donald Trump has been inconsistent when talking about the protests, in some cases calling them riots and in other cases saying he supports them.Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for all sides to refrain from violence, but said the Hong Kong government “bears primary responsibility” for the conflict. 
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Hong Kong pro-democracy forces appear headed for a landslide victory in local elections that saw record turnout, delivering a stunning rebuke to Beijing.Early voting results Monday showed pro-democracy candidates winning nearly every seat they contested in Hong Kong’s 18 district councils. Pro-democracy candidates led the pro-establishment camp, 278 seats to 42.If the trend continues, it would be a major symbolic blow to pro-China forces that dominate virtually all levels of Hong Kong’s politics.It is the latest evidence of continued public support for a five-month-old pro-democracy movement that has become increasingly aggressive.“Hong Kongers have spoken out, loud and clear. The international community must acknowledge that, almost six months in, public opinion has NOT turned against the movement,” student activist Joshua Wong said on Twitter.The vote will not significantly change the balance of power in Hong Kong’s quasi-democratic political system. District council members have no power to pass legislation; they deal mainly with hyperlocal issues, such as noise complaints and bus stop locations.However, the district council vote is seen as one of the most reliable indicators of public opinion, since it is the only fully democratic election in Hong Kong.
On Edge From Violence, Hong Kong Holds Local Elections video player.
Embed” />Copy LinkWatch related video by VOA’s William GalloMassive turnoutNearly 3 million people voted in the election — a record high for Hong Kong, and more than double the turnout of the previous district council election, in 2015.Voters formed long lines that snaked around city blocks outside polling stations across the territory, many waiting over an hour to vote.“This amount of people I’ve never seen. There are so many people,” said Felix, who works in the real estate industry and voted in the central business district.By nighttime, most of the long lines at voting stations had tapered off, but nearby sidewalks remained filled with candidates and their supporters who held signs and chanted slogans in an attempt to persuade passersby to cast last-minute votes.
 
“I’m tired, but I think it’s more important to fight,” said Elvis Yam, who waited in line for an hour to vote in the morning and then volunteered to hold a campaign sign for a pro-democracy candidate in the University District.Voters queue to vote at a polling station during district council local elections on Hong Kong Island, China November 24, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha 
Mr. Ma, a voter in the South Horizons West constituency, said he sees the election as a continuation of the protest movement. “Many would like to have a change. So this election is very important,” he said.
 
Police promised a heavy security presence at voting locations. But outside many polling stations, there was no visible police presence. At others, teams of riot police waited in nearby vans. There were no reports of major clashes.Hong Kong has seen five months of pro-democracy protests. The protests have escalated in recent weeks, with smaller groups of hard-core protesters engaging in fierce clashes with police.The win “very clearly” shows the public is in support of the movement, says Ma Ngok, a political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.“This will, I think, give (Hong Kong) much better support internationally, and also create much more pressure for the Hong Kong government to respond to the demands of the protest,” Ma said.Electoral staff helps a voter at a polling station during district council local elections in Hong Kong, Nov. 24, 2019.Wider impact?Even though district councils have little power, the vote could affect how the territory’s more influential Legislative Council and chief executive are selected in the future.District councilors are able to select a small number of people to the 1,200-member election committee that chooses Hong Kong’s chief executive. They also have the ability to select or run for seats in the Legislative Council.“That’s a big deal,” said Emily Lau, a former Legislative Council member and prominent member of the pro-democracy camp. “Because of this constitutional linkage, it makes the significance of the district council much bigger than its powers show you.”
 
Hong Kong saw a major surge in voter registration, particularly among young people. Nearly 386,000 people have registered to vote in the past year — the most since at least 2003.Many Hong Kongers are concerned about what they see as an erosion of the “one country, two systems” policy that Beijing has used to govern Hong Kong since it was returned by Britain in 1997. 
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