“With the support of external forces, opposition groups and leaders have deliberately devised plans to hold this so-called ‘primary election’, which is a serious provocation for the current electoral system and caused serious damage to the equity and justice of the Legislative Council. Elections, “said the Liaison Office.
The statement came after the Hong Kong government said it was “conducting an in-depth investigation” at the primary and “would immediately refer the case to the relevant law enforcement agencies” if there were any illegal activity.
One of the government’s main complaints was the organizers’ stated goal of achieving a 35-seat parliamentary majority, allowing the opposition to block the legislation and potentially force the resignation of Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
“If the purpose of this so-called primary election is to achieve the ultimate goal of handing over what they called ’35 -plus’ with the goal of objecting or resisting every political initiative of the HKSAR government, it may fall into the category of subverting the power state : One of four types of crime under national security law, “Lam said Monday.
The Liaison Office statement went further, accusing Benny Tai, the former leader of the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement and organizer of the primaries, of planning to “take over the Hong Kong government and organize a ‘color revolution’.”
“Who ordered (Tai) to openly manipulate the elections in such a notorious way? Who gave him so much confidence?” The statement added, without providing evidence or suggestion of who Tai was supposed to have colluded with.
Nor could he be the only person punished. Antony Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based lawyer and author of “City on Fire: The Fight for Hong Kong,” predicted that after the Beijing declaration declaring the primary to be illegal, the government may go on to “disqualify all candidates selected through the primary process (perhaps even all who ran in the primary) “of the September elections.
Unfair choice?
Preliminary results from this weekend’s primaries appear to show many younger candidates, linked to the protest, ahead of traditional Democrats, after similar success in last year’s local elections, in which large numbers of candidates for the first time were elected in a crushing defeat for pro-government parties.
Tai said the participation showed that “the people of Hong Kong have demonstrated to the world, and also to the authorities, that we have not given up to fight for democracy.”
Beijing’s claim that the primary elections undermine the September vote creates an obstacle that few democracies could clear. Primary votes are held regularly to restrict candidates for a general election, nor do they always involve party members: Bernie Sanders, who had the second-highest number of votes in the United States Democratic Party presidential primaries, it’s independent.
“Elections are a very serious and solemn matter in all jurisdictions,” Lam said this week. “People must defend their right to vote in an open, fair and honest election.”
Mainland China does not have free and fair elections, nor massive votes of any kind. In Hong Kong, this year’s legislative elections were seen as perhaps the last chance for the democratic opposition to gain significant power.
Before the security law was passed, several candidates had already been banned from participating and lawmakers had been removed from parliament. Authorities also suggested that anyone campaigning or criticizing the security law could be rejected on the ballot.
In the hours after its enactment, several political parties dissolved, including one founded by prominent activist Joshua Wong. Other groups, particularly the independence parties, moved their operations abroad for fear of being arrested.
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