Primaries Beyond Expectations

People wearing masks lined up patiently to vote today

Almost 600,000 people turned out to cast their vote in the pan-democratic primaries for the past two days, in a proxy rebuke to the Hong Kong government and Beijing. While many people are not going out on the streets to protest anymore because of the national security law, this vote of 581,969 shows they are still waiting for their five demands to be met.

Au Nok-hin says Hongkongers are brave

There are still paper ballots that need to be counted, which is why the organizers have said the results will be announced on Monday about who the public wish to see on the ballot this coming September for the Legislative Council elections.

"Even though there's the threat of the national security law, there are still nearly 600,000 people coming out to vote. This shows how brave Hongkongers are," said Au Nok-hin, one of the organizers.

People waited patiently again in long lines (and in the heat wearing masks) to cast their vote. Some even exercised their right to vote for the first time, realizing now that their chance to vote for the candidate of their choice is too precious to give up.

Miss Lui waited three hours to vote yesterday

There were young and old who cast their ballots, some waiting before the 9am start today, worried the police may come to halt the process, but they didn't, thankfully. Though who knows what kind of action the police will take in the next few days, following what happened after the July 1 protests.

An elderly woman named Miss Lui was interviewed by Apple Daily yesterday. She had waited at the polling station for three hours from 9am to noon, unaware there were technical problems. "Voting is my responsibility and I don't worry about legal issues," she said.

Meanwhile many are concerned about the government saying the Hong Kong Book Fair will go ahead as planned on Wednesday, despite the numbers of coronavirus cases going up everyday. Today there are 38 new cases, 30 of which are locally transmitted, and the source of the infections in 13 of the cases were unknown.

The book fair attracts 1 million visitors

Around 160 exhibitors are considering pulling out of the fair for health concerns -- despite the possibility of losing their deposits -- while 200 exhibitors would like the fair to be postponed.

Several medical experts have urged for the event to be postponed especially now during the third wave of this pandemic, which seems to indicate the virus has mutated.

Over 1 million people usually attend the book fair and having people practice social distancing in the indoor event will be difficult, and they will be touching books, and such.

The fact that the government insists on going ahead with the fair shows it is not listening to expert medical advice, nor is it making the health concerns of the public as the utmost priority.

And yet the government can (try) to threaten people for just about anything because of the national security law...