Even before the aftermath of the Hong Kong apartment fire disaster that killed at least 159 people in Hong Kong had been fully resolved, the pro-Beijing camp's largest party was found to have lost significant voter support in the Legislative Council election.
On the 8th (local time), according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP) in Hong Kong, the pro-Beijing flagship party Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) fielded 26 candidates in this election, with 20 ultimately winning seats.
While the DAB managed to retain its status as the largest party and appeared on the surface not to have suffered a major blow, it was tallied to have won far fewer votes than in the previous election. The DAB's vote count in geographical constituencies (direct elections) was 432,473 votes (34%), down about 250,000 votes, or 36%, from 2021, when it won a majority. Notably, two incumbent lawmakers from the DAB lost in this election, and one of them was defeated by an independent candidate.
This was seen as a result of fierce competition among candidates as well as the public's anger over the fire disaster. Even before the election, authorities in China and Hong Kong labeled criticism related to the fire as forces that are "anti-China and anti-government" and cracked down hard.
Invalid ballots also surged in this election. There were a total of 41,147 invalid ballots, a sharp increase from four years ago (27,453). Lau Siu-kai, a consultant at the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, analyzed that it "appears to be a form of protest, with past election boycotts turning into refusals to mark ballots."