The political unrest of recent months has overshadowed what would normally be a calm campaign.
Abuse, threats, protests and police cordons: first-time candidate Kwan Siu Lun says campaigning for this weekend’s district elections in Hong Kong has been a dangerous business in the white heat of the city’s political crisis.
The protest movement needs a big turnout – it was 47% the last time around in 2015 – to give the unpopular government a bloody nose at the ballot box. “I try to focus on local community issues,” says the 38-year-old architect running as an independent on the pro-democracy side in his working-class constituency of Hung Hom.
This year it is “a kind of referendum” on the Hong Kong government’s handling “of the riots over the extradition , democracy and the conflicts between the people and the police”, said political analyst Dixon Sing. “I never thought about running before… I have a day job and I have a new-born baby,” he told AFP, the pavement dug up around him by protesters seeking projectiles to hurl at police.
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