Turnout Was Well Within My Expectation: Maria Tam

A vice-chairwoman of the Basic Law Committee, Maria Tam, says the voter turnout of the Legislative Council elections was within her expectation, adding she believes it will go up in future polls after lawmakers in the new system “earn back people’s trust”.

Speaking on an RTHK programme on Tuesday, Tam said a 30 percent turnout was “quite good” given various reasons, such as the fact that it was a new electoral system with a small number of candidates.

She said the government could take its time to look at why more people didn’t come out to vote, and improve the system slowly.

Meanwhile, Tam said the new lawmakers’ top priority is to solve the land and housing shortage.

“I hope in the coming four years, people will get down to work, instead of dragging their feet over agendas and procedures and wasting Hong Kong’s time. I believe such situations will not happen a lot. To prove the reform was a right thing to do, and that we have entered a new era, we have to make up for the lost time in the past 24 years. Otherwise our young people will have no future,” she said.

Speaking on another programme, Lau Siu-kai from the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies said he believes Beijing would see Sunday's polls as a success.

The vice-president of Beijing's top think tank on Hong Kong said all of Beijing's main goals, such as ensuring patriots run Hong Kong, have been achieved in this election.

Lau said Beijing hopes people might be more supportive of the electoral reform, if the new Legco can produce “good results”.

"With more people in the legislature, the government has to spend more time on trying to persuade people to support government policies... A lot of members have no party affiliation, the government has to forge coalitions or majorities among the legislators in order to pass bills," Lau said.

"At the same time, these new legislators, with their professional backgrounds, might have more expertise in policies than many of the old legislators...That means the government might have to deal with more experts in professional fields or in policy areas," he added.

Lau said he expects more opposition voters to participate in future polls, when trust improves between the establishment and the opposition camps.