China declared the primary elections held by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy parties over the weekend “illegal” and the city’s leader announced an investigation, saying the candidates’ intention to vote against government legislation could violate the laws. national security.
The primary polls, while not a formal part of Hong Kong’s electoral process, drew some 600,000 people to vote for democracy candidates before the legislative council elections scheduled for September.
Observers interpreted the extraordinary participation in the face of the authorities’ warnings as an act of opposition to the national security laws imposed by Beijing on June 30.
As the pro-democracy protest movement continued throughout 2019 and an unprecedented number of pro-democracy candidates were voted in the district council elections, confidence has grown that pro-members -Beijing in the legislative council (LegCo) could be sent to the minority. With the primaries, the organizers sought to determine a list of candidates to avoid dividing the votes.
Late Monday, Beijing’s top representatives in Hong Kong called the primaries “illegal” and accused the organizers of colluding with foreign powers in a “serious provocation” of the Hong Kong electoral system and of confiscating private data from the voters.
“The objective of organizer Benny Tai and the opposition camp is to seize the ruling power of Hong Kong and … carry out a Hong Kong version of ‘color revolution’,” said a spokesman for the Liaison Office, whose boss is also in charge of implementing national security laws.
The statement came in support of Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam, who said Democrats who coordinate to win a majority and veto the government budget could be against anti-sedition laws, and would be investigated.
“If the purpose of this so-called ‘primary’ election is to achieve the ultimate goal of delivering what they call a ’35 + ‘ [majority seats] Aiming to object, resist all political initiatives of the Hong Kong SAR government, then it can fall into the category of subverting the power of the state, which is now one of the four types of crimes under the new national security law Lam said. He told the media late Monday.
She emphasized that she was not saying the primaries violated the law, but warned if an investigation showed so much “there certainly is a case to answer.”
Government investigators will forward any findings to authorities.
Lam also said the government had received “a large number of complaints” about the primaries, including concerns that they violated social distancing rules and that holding such polls before the election period began was “unfair.”
Law expert and organizer of the 2014 Occupy Central primaries and protests Benny Tai said LegCo’s power to veto the budget was enshrined in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
“How can a power recognized by the Basic Law be breaking the national security law?”
Tai predicted that pro-democracy candidates could win up to 45 seats in September, and on Tuesday he said they had worked “a miracle,” but he had doubts about the reaction of those in power.
“Everyone must be mentally prepared.”
Preliminary results from the primary polls showed favorable results for candidates who were younger, in favor of self-determination or localists, and for those who had a high profile during the protest movement, including Joshua Wong.
Lam’s and Beijing’s rejection has reinforced the rejection of their repeated assurances that the law would only affect a “small minority” of criminals in the city.
The laws, which were not made public until they came into effect, prohibited acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, but have been labeled so broadly and ill-defined as to criminalize the most benign acts. and to prohibit freedom of expression and of the press.
On the first full day under the laws, several people were arrested for crimes that included carrying a flag in favor of independence.
Last week Hong Kong schools were told that children could not form human chains or sing Glory to Hong Kong, a song that had become an unofficial anthem of the protest movement. Performances of songs from the French Revolution musical, Les Miserables, may also be prohibited, depending on the intention of the performance.
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