The world will be seeing a 'new politics' in Hong Kong, an analyst told CNBC, as polls closed for the first legislative election.
Hong Kong's first legislative election since Beijing overhauled the city's electoral process marks the beginning of a "new politics" in the city, an analyst told CNBC.
"We have to wait to see the final results before we know that for certain, but it does look like the pro-establishment candidates — who are focusing more on livelihood issues, social issues — are going to dominate the legislature," Tim Summers, senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Monday.
Such issues range from housing and poverty to the environment, said Summers, who added that "we'll still see a fair amount of contestation and debate about many of the livelihood issues that Hong Kong is facing." People enter a polling station to cast their ballots during the Legislative Council election on December 19, 2021 in Hong Kong, China.Lau Siu-Kai, vice-president of Beijing-based think tank the China Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, echoed those sentiments. He said the new legislature will focus on "practical matters" like the city's housing shortage, climbing real-estate prices, and income equality.
"They saw a much greater radicalization of Hong Kong politics over the last five or six years … They wanted to cut that off … after the massive social movements, often violent movements of 2019," Summers said.
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