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Dec 9, 2025
Hong Kong election turnout in focus amid anger over deadly fire
The Business Standard
Hong Kong's citizens were voting on Sunday in an election where the focus is on turnout, with residents grieving and traumatised after the city's worst fire in nearly 80 years and the authorities scrambling to avoid a broader public backlash.
Security was tight in the northern district of Tai Po, close to the border with mainland China, where the fire engulfed seven towers. The city is holding elections for the Legislative Council, in which only candidates vetted as "patriots" by the China-backed Hong Kong government may run.
Residents are angry over the blaze that killed at least 159 people and took nearly two days to extinguish after it broke out on 26 November. The authorities say substandard building materials used in renovating a high-rise housing estate were responsible for fuelling the fire.
Eager to contain the public dismay, authorities have launched criminal and corruption investigations into the blaze, and roughly 100 police patrolled the area around Wang Fuk Court, the site of the fire, early on Sunday.
'Not a healthy system now'
A resident in his late 70s named Cheng, who lives near the charred buildings, said he would not vote.
"I'm very upset by the great fire," he said during a morning walk. "This is a result of a flawed government ... There is not a healthy system now and I won't vote to support those pro-establishment politicians who failed us."
Cheng declined to give his full name, saying he feared authorities would target those who criticise the government.
At a memorial site near the burned-out residential development, a sign said authorities plan to clear the area after the election concludes close to midnight, suggesting government anxiety over public anger.
Beijing's national security office in Hong Kong has said it would crack down on any "anti-China" protest in the wake of the fire and warned against using the disaster to "disrupt Hong Kong".
China's national security office in Hong Kong warned senior editors with a number of fore
