29 Arrested in Hong Kong Over Alleged Attempts to Disrupt December 17 Legislative Election

This story by  Oiwan Lam originally appeared on Global Voices on November 27, 2025

Hong Kong authorities had arrested at least 29 individuals, including five minors, as of November 25, for sabotaging the upcoming Legislative Election on December 17.

The 2025 Legislative Council election (Legco) is the third general election since Beijing rewrote the city’s electoral rules in March 2021, which set patriotism and loyalty as the most essential criteria for prescreening candidates who must secure a minimum of 10 nominations, with at least 2 from each of the 5 sectors in the 1,500-membered election committee. After the 2021 Legislative election, the legislature has wiped out pro-democracy and opposition.

This year, 35 pro-establishment lawmakers decided not to run for re-election, and reportedly, many were told to quit; among them, 12 are aged 70 or above. A few pro-establishment lawmakers, such as 55-year-old Doreen Kong, 68-year-old Tik Chi-yuen and 36-year-old Gary Zhang Xinyu, who had been outspoken in raising questions over government policies, have also quit the race.

Only 161 candidates have secured enough nominations to take part in the upcoming elections. Among them, 51 will compete for 20 directly elected seats from the 10 geographical constituencies, with 4,140,000 voters; 60 will compete for 30 seats from the 28 functional constituencies, with 194,000 voters; and 50 will compete for 40 seats from the Election Committee constituency, with 1,500 voters.

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Under the Beijing-imposed election rules, the voter turnout dropped significantly in 2021 and 2023. Of the 4.47 million registered voters, only 1.35 million — about 30.2 percent — cast their votes in 2021, and dropped further to a record low in the 2023 District Council Elections, with 1.19 million voters turnout at a rate of 27.59 percent. Back in the 2016 Legco elections, the number of votes was 2.2 million, 58.28 percent, and in the 2019 District Council Elections, it was 2.94 million, 71.2 percent.

This year, the Hong Kong government has exhausted all means to boost voter turnout. In the initial stage, it took a popular approach by appealing to humor — using Cantonese homophonic puns of the words like “hair” (髮) and “law” (法) and comparing the Legco elections with changing hairstyles in its promotion videos. 

As election day approached, the “patriotic” business sector was urged to grant a half-day “thank you leave” to encourage their staff to vote. 

On the eve of the voting day, the government will hold a free concert with 70 artists, urging voters to cast their ballots. It will also set up extra polling stations and extend voting hours on December 7. 

At the same time, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee labelled news and discussions about Beijing’s restrictions and blessings of candidates as “opposition forces,” “soft resistance,” and “external forces” that are attempting to sabotage the elections by discrediting the electoral system, and vowed that his administration would crack down on any acts of interference targeting the election. 

Three major television channels, which traditionally organize election forums ahead of Legislative Council elections, cancelled their plans and gave way to government-organized forums. Reportedly, most candidates decided only to appear in government-organized platforms to avoid “misspeaking.” As a result, there had been an absence of policy debates emerging from the election campaign.

The law enforcement authorities have thus far arrested at least four individuals for discouraging citizens from voting through social media posts. In addition, as the city is covered with election posters, anyone who dares to tear them down could be arrested for criminal damage. Reportedly, among the 29  arrestees, at least five are teenagers.

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A huge gamble on voter turnout

Veteran journalist Chris Yeung described the vast effort of the government in ramping up the voter turnout as a “huge gamble” in his column on an opinion platform, Voice of Hong Kong:

Ben Lam, a former district councillor who is based in the U.K., shares Chris Yeung’s analysis and elaborates on the Hong Kong government’s “embarrassment” in the election turnout gamble in overseas independent media outlets, Pulse HK:

Macau’s national security committee disqualified 12 candidates from running in the September Legislative Election over loyalty concerns. One of the disqualified candidates was Ron Lam, an incumbent lawmaker who was critical of social and economic policies such as the importation of labor. While the voter turnout rate was considered high, about 13,000 of the 175,000 ballots were either blank or invalid.

[VP]

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