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Hong Kong’s business sector has echoed a government call to boost the voter turnout rate in the coming Legislative Council election by offering incentives such as a half day of paid leave and transport subsidies to encourage employees to cast their ballots. Developer Sino Group was among the first conglomerates leading the drive as it announced it would grant more than 11,000 staff members a half day of leave for voting on December 7 while promoting election awareness internally. “This is particularly important as more than 90 per cent of our 10,000-plus colleagues in Hong Kong are frontline workers, who serve residents, mall and hotel patrons on weekends and Sundays,” Daryl Ng, chairman of Sino Group, told the Post on Friday. “We strongly encourage all colleagues to cast their votes and contribute to Hong Kong’s continued prosperity, stability and good policy advancement.” Peter Lam Kin-ngok, chairman of Lai Sun Development, also urged chambers of commerce and corporations to offer half-day “gratitude” leave to employees who provided a “thank you card” they had obtained after casting their ballots. He said the suggestion had won the backing of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Hong Kong Industries and the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong, among others. The Hong Kong Tourism Board, a statutory body chaired by Lam which has around 300 staff in the city, said it would provide a half day of paid leave to its employees who needed to work on election day for “their participation in public service and community development”. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu earlier urged both public institutions and businesses to encourage employees to take part in the poll, the second under Beijing’s “patriots-only” electoral overhaul. He also issued a letter to all civil servants urging them to vote and vowed to take a hard line on any disruptions to the election. Organisations such as the Hong Kong Jockey Club, CLP Power and HK Electric earlier said they would help workers on duty with transport that day. An insider also said measures such as flexible working hours, transport arrangements and commuting reimbursements would be offered by Hong Kong-based state-owned enterprises, in line with their previous practices in past elections. Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn Hon-ho and security minister Chris Tang Ping-keung on Friday wrote to statutory bodies and groups that work with their bureaus calling on them to back the polls. Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan also wrote to the city’s 170,000 government workers. Veteran political commentator Sonny Lo Shiu-hing said Hong Kong faced pressure as Macau’s legislative election in September yielded a voter turnout rate of more than 50 per cent. He said the city should also put more effort into helping residents understand candidates’ platforms while having more centrists run in the poll would boost voters’ participation. The 2021 Legco election, the first after Beijing overhauled the city’s electoral system to allow only “patriots” to hold political power, saw a record low turnout of 30.2 per cent.
