At a press conference, Hong Kong Executive Director Carrie Lam said the move to postpone the Legislative Council elections, scheduled for September 6, was the most difficult decision she had made in the past seven months. She added that she had the support of the Chinese central government to make this decision.
Lam said the delay was necessary to protect public health and ensure fairness in elections.
But pro-democracy figures had received news of a possible delay in key polls with dismay, accusing the government of wanting to avoid a potential loss after China’s imposition of a new national security law in the city, banning secession. , subversion, terrorism and collusion. with foreign forces
Opposition parties aimed to drive a wave of discontent with the government toward a historic victory in the semi-democratic legislature, where just under half of the seats are controlled by so-called functional groups, which represent business and government groups. society and are typically pro-government.
Last year, pro-democracy candidates won a landslide victory in local council elections. A similar outcome in the legislative council could put them in a position to force a constitutional crisis by blocking the budget and pressuring Lam to resign. Both the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have suggested that such a plan could be illegal under the new national security law.
In a statement, the Hong Kong government said it supported the decisions of returning officers to “invalidate 12 nominees for this year’s Legislative Council (LegCo) general election.”
He said the candidates had been excluded for not respecting the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s de facto constitution, and suggested that more could be disqualified in the future.
The government said it “respects and protects the legal rights of the Hong Kong people, including the right to vote and the right to stand for election.”
Several letters posted online by disqualified returning officer candidates informing them of their decision cited previous opposition to the security law as a reason for the move.
“The excuse they use is that I describe (the security law) as a draconian law, which shows that I don’t support this radical law,” said Wong.
Another disqualified candidate, Dennis Kwok, was reportedly excluded for expressing his intention to use his position as a legislator “in such a way as to compel the government to agree to certain demands,” effectively the work of an opposition legislator in the majority democratic countries
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