Hong Kong’s first “patriots only” election drew a record low turnout of 27.5 per cent as voters shunned a ballot that barred pro-democracy opposition candidates amid a tightening of national security measures.

The tepid public response to Sunday’s poll, widely seen as staged, marked a blow to official efforts to legitimise China’s vision for the former British colony.

It marked a vivid contrast to a record-breaking 71 per cent turnout in the last district election in November 2019, at the peak of huge democracy protests, when opposition candidates won by a landslide.

Sunday’s sharp slide in participation followed a concerted campaign by John Lee, the chief executive of Hong Kong, to stir up public support for an election he said would secure stability in the city that the UK handed back to Beijing in 1997.

“It’s the last piece of the puzzle for us to implement the principles of patriots governing Hong Kong,” he said after casting his vote, adding that the 2019 ballot had been used to sabotage governance and endanger national security.

Four years ago, voting took place during months of anti-government demonstrations by protesters intent on reversing China’s creeping authoritarian rule over the city.

Carrie Lam, the then chief executive, said the government would listen to the public’s opinion “humbly” and “seriously reflect”.

But seven months later, Beijing imposed a draconian national security law, effectively outlawing free speech and dissent. Many pro-democracy advocates have since been jailed or forced into exile.

The city’s electoral system has also been overhauled to exclude liberal and democratic candidates.

For Sunday’s revamped poll, directly elected seats were slashed by nearly 80 per cent, from 462 to 88.

Candidates were also required to undergo national security checks and vetting from two pro-government committees, effectively shutting out all pro-democracy parties.

More than 70 per cent of the candidates picked to run for the election were themselves members of the nominating committees.

‘People are discontented with Beijing’

“Voters are apathetic towards ‘patriot-only’ politics. There’s no difference from voting which person on the ballot paper as they’re all Beijing-approved candidates,” Michael Mo, a former Hong Kong district councillor, told The Telegraph.

“More importantly, the loss of nearly two million voters who cast their ballots in the 2019 election shows people are discontented with Beijing stifling the city’s pro-democracy movement,” added Mr Mo, who now lives in the UK as the University of Leeds sanctuary scholar.

Overall, fewer than 1.2 million out of 4.3 million registered electors cast their ballot, despite a rare 90-minute extension of voting time due to a technical glitch in equipment at polling stations.

Previously, the lowest turnout since the city’s handover to China was 35.82 per cent, recorded in 1999.

But while people largely shunned the polls, Hong Kong’s police, previously criticised for their heavy-handed treatment of the 2019 pro-democracy protests, were out in force.

Some 12,000 officers – more than one third of the territory’s entire ranks – were deployed to boost security and stifle any sign of dissent.

At least six people were arrested, including three from the League of Social Democrats – one of the city’s last remaining opposition groups – which had planned to stage a protest.

Beijing’s top office overseeing Hong Kong on Monday congratulated the city for holding an election that “uplifted the spirit and consolidated consensus”, adding that the vote “injected strong momentum” for the city’s development.