Low voter turnout at today's Hong Kong polls
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Will the recent deadly fire at a housing complex in Hong Kong - and the angry response to it - have an impact on today's elections to the Legislative Council?
Also on the programme: a failed coup attempt in the west African country of Benin; we'll be in Syria - a year on from the ousting of the Assad regime - and the prison diaries of Nicolas Sarkozy - written after a mere three weeks behind bars.
(Image: A voter checks on the candidates at a polling station in Tai Po during the Legislative Council general election in Hong Kong on December 7, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Lam Yik)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.5 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. |
| 0:13.8 | I'm Rebecca Kesby. |
| 0:15.0 | And we begin in Hong Kong, where elections are underway today, |
| 0:18.9 | to choose members of the Legislative Council or Legchco. |
| 0:22.6 | There are 161 candidates fighting for 90 seats, but all of them have been approved to run based on their loyalty to the government in Beijing. |
| 0:31.9 | Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China following decades as a British colony. |
| 0:39.4 | Well, these elections are only the second since sweeping changes to the electoral system were put into place after pro-democracy protests |
| 0:44.9 | in 2019. And today's vote is taking place as many Hong Kongers are still in shock after a devastating |
| 0:52.4 | fire at a housing complex killed more than 150 people |
| 0:56.0 | just over a week ago. It's the worst such fire in the territory for more than 70 years. |
| 1:01.8 | Well, the BBC's Martin Yip is at a polling station in the Taipot district where that fire |
| 1:06.8 | happened and joins us live. Martin, first, let's get a word on the turnout because I noticed in |
| 1:13.0 | the last Legco vote, I think that was 2021, it was very far down, the lowest ever, around 30%. |
| 1:20.7 | Have we got any idea of what the turnout is today? |
| 1:25.6 | Well, yes, indeed, that was what happened in 2021 after the first poll after the shake-up |
| 1:31.6 | of the system by Beijing. And tonight, as I talk to you now, is now standing at just |
| 1:38.3 | over 29%, 29.06 to be precise. |
| 1:48.2 | We're still waiting for our update from the previous half hour. |
| 1:52.3 | It's not out as I kept refreshing my phone for that very figure. |
| 1:59.4 | So it's still one percentage point shy of last year. |
| 2:01.3 | So something that the government would keep very low indeed. Yeah. of last year. Fairly low, though, it seems. |
... |
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