Over 400,000 Added To District Poll Voter Lists

Over 400,000 new voters will get a chance to make their voices heard when the district council elections come around in November, the latest official figures show.

The Registration and Electoral Office said on Wednesday that 4.13 million people are now registered voters – 440,000 more than during the last district council polls in 2015.

Over 17 percent of the new voters are aged between 18 and 30.

The highest number of voters can be found in the Sha Tin district, where 419,000 are registered, while in Yuen Long 349,000 people are on the list.

In Kowloon, Kwun Tong tops the list with 396,000 voters, while on Hong Kong Island, Eastern District has the most with 323,000.

With the district council elections set for November 24, City University's political analyst Cheung Chor-yung says the change in the voter portfolio could mean an advantage for the pro-democracy camp because of the ongoing protests.

"The current political crisis, I think many people still are sympathetic with protesters rather than the government. So we could assume that those who want to support the protesters or are sympathetic with the protesters, they have more incentive to enrol into the voter registrations and hence translate such support into votes," he said.

But he told RTHK's Damon Pang that if the anti-government protests get more violent, the camp's upper hand could be eroded.

"Because I still believe, on the whole, the mainstream voters probably do not welcome the escalation of violence," Cheung said.