Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu speaks to the media ahead of an Executive Council meeting on Dec 12, 2023. (PHOTO / HKSAR GOVERNMENT)

HONG KONG – Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu on Tuesday expressed his hope that the new-term District Councils would be “constructive” and better meet the needs of members of the communities compared with the previous term.

Speaking to the media ahead of the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lee said he was satisfied with the District Council election turnout, which was 27.54 percent, and glad that nearly 1.2 million voters cast their ballots for the election on Sunday.

“We should focus on (the nature of) the District Councils, what kinds of members have been elected, what the future work of the District Councils is, and how the members can better meet the needs of the community. These are my utmost concern,” he said.

Each election had its own characteristics and the enhanced and improved District Council election system had the merits of producing the most qualified and competent members to contribute to the well-being of the districts, Lee said.

The new term District Councils would focus on livelihood issues to help those living in the districts solve problems and contribute to the well-being of residents and take forward government policies, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said

Pointing out that some people had tried to sabotage the election and incited others not to vote, the CE said: “There are still some people who somehow are still immersed in the wrong idea of trying to make the District Councils a political platform for their own political means, achieving their own gains rather than the districts' gains.”

“There are still people who have ideas that represent as if they were agents of a foreign country. These kinds of soft resistance still exist,” he cautioned.

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The government had done what it needed to enable residents to understand the difference between the “constructive” nature of the new-term District Councils and the “destructive” one of the previous term, which was taking care of people's interests rather than those in the past taking care of their own political interests and sometimes acting as agents of foreign forces, said Lee.

The District Councils would not be as “destructive” as it was previously, he said.

Simply put, the new term District Councils would focus on livelihood issues to help those living in the districts solve problems and contribute to the well-being of residents and take forward government policies, he said.

Hong Kong had turned over a new leaf, as the new District Council members were patriots and would be more pragmatic, he said.

Election workers process the completed ballots at the counting center in the early morning of Dec 11, 2023, after the conclusion of voting in the 2023 District Council Ordinary Election on Sunday. (EDMOND TANG / CHINA DAILY)

Regarding a system glitch of the electronic poll register system, the CE said the authorities had contingency plans for various possibilities and resorted to “plan B” 30 minutes after the technical issues had arisen.

The issues had led to the voting hours extended by one and a half hours and printed ballots were used for voting.

“For our preliminary analysis, we do not see any abnormal conditions from external data flow. We will have computer forensic experts to look into the matters and also ask the police to participate in the investigation into the possibility of cyberattacks,” Lee said.

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He had also asked the Electoral Affairs Commission to establish a task force to look into the causes of the incident and submit an interim report, which would take about six weeks, he added.