District Council Election

The election for the District Councils is now over. In our district, candidate number 2 was the pan-democratic district councillor for a number of years but was voted out of office several years ago.  Number 3 was a popular young pan-democrat.  Number 4 was the incumbent pro-establishment candidate. Number 1 was an unknown.  

In the end, the pro-establishment incumbent (no. 4) defeated the pan-democratic young man (no. 3) by a small number of votes - smaller than the number of votes obtained by no. 2.  Hence many are of the opinion that if the pan-democratic camp was better organized, they would have defeated the pro-establishment candidate.  As it turned out, the pro-establishment candidate was able to retain the seat.  Similar scenarios were repeated across the city.   

On the other hand, a larger percentage of people came out to vote.  An unusually large number of young people put themselves forward as candidates, perhaps influenced by the Occupy Movement, and some of them won.  This is encouraging.  In many ways democratic participation at the district level is even more important than participation at the city level.  The more people participate, the more we can make sure that we are heard, that the government is run the way we want it.