Despite a landslide win for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy parties, the ‘root’ of the problem remains – CNBC

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Hong Kong’s pro-democracy candidates won big in local elections on Sunday, but there will be no easy solutions to the issues hanging over the territory as protesters stand up to China‘s growing influence, analysts told CNBC on Monday.

“It’s very clear that people are not happy with the government, so they try to support the pro-democracy camp in this election,” said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

The polls come after six months of anti-government, pro-democracy protests that have turned increasingly violent, and as Hong Kong struggles to overcome its most serious political crisis in decades. The local elections have been widely viewed as a barometer of public sentiment.

“The root cause of Hong Kong’s problem is still there, particularly (as) Beijing is very assertive about Hong Kong’s situation,” Wu told CNBC’s “Capital Connection.”

“Also, lots of young people are very much politically active,” he added. “They want (the) government to make a change, but unfortunately over the past few months, (the) government still adopt the previous line so it’s hard to say it will have a dramatic change in the near future.”

Hong Kong pro-democracy parties took 390 out of 452 district council seats — winning nearly 90% of the seats, according to Reuters which cited local broadcaster RTHK on Monday. Democratic candidates secured just 100 seats at the previous elections four years ago.

According to the office of the Chief Executive Carrie Lam, about 2.94 million registered electors cast their votes in the district council election on Sunday — a record turnout of about 71.2%. That’s almost double the number in the previous election four years ago, according to Reuters.

Hong Kong, a former British colony, has been operating under the “one country, two systems” principle since its return to Chinese rule in 1997. That framework gives the international financial hub self-governing power and various freedoms, including limited election rights. Hong Kong citizens also enjoy a higher degree of autonomy compared to citizens of mainland China.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/25/hong-kong-protests-landslide-win-for-pro-democracy-parties-in-elections.html

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