In the subsequently postponed 2020 Hong Kong Legislative Council election, 12 opposition candidates were disqualified by the returning officers from running in the election, including four incumbent legislators, Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung, as well as activists Joshua Wong, Ventus Lau, Gwyneth Ho and Cheng Kam-mun and incumbent District Councillors Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen, Fergus Leung and Cheng Tat-hung. [1]
The political screening of Legislative Council candidates began in the 2016 Legislative Council election when six localists were barred from running in the election for their alleged advocacy for Hong Kong independence, including Edward Leung of Hong Kong Indigenous, who had previously contested the 2016 New Territories East by-election, and Chan Ho-tin of the Hong Kong National Party. [2] Returning officer Cora Ho Lai-sheung rejected Leung's nomination referring to Leung's Facebook posts, newspaper clippings and cited transcripts of remarks made at press conferences, and stated that although Leung had signed the forms, she did not believe that he had "genuinely changed his previous stance for independence". [3]
Screening of candidates for political reasons continued in the March 2018 Legislative Council by-elections, where Agnes Chow (Demosistō) and Ventus Lau (Shatin Community Network) were barred from running in late January 2018. Returning officer Teng Yu-yan ruled on Chow's candidature stating that "the candidate cannot possibly comply with the requirements of the relevant electoral laws, since advocating or promoting 'self-determination' is contrary to the content of the declaration that the law requires a candidate to make to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region]". [4]
On 13 February 2018, High Court judge Thomas Au upheld the returning officer's decision to disqualify Chan Ho-tin from joining the 2016 Legislative Council election (viz: Chan Ho Tin v Lo Ying Ki Alan & Ors). [5] Justice Au ruled that: "The returning officer was entitled to look at matters beyond the compliance of the nomination form to come to a view as to whether Mr Chan at the time of the nomination intended to uphold the Basic Lasic Law and pledge allegiance to the HKSAR". [6]
Pro-democracy candidate Lau Siu-lai, who had previously been disqualified from the Legislative Council over her oath-taking, was barred from running in the November 2018 Kowloon West by-election. The returning officer invalidated her candidacy on the basis of Lau previous advocacy of Hong Kong's self-determination, which showed "she had no intention of upholding the Basic Law and pledging allegiance to Hong Kong as a special administrative region of China." [7]
In May 2020, the Beijing authorities initiated a plan for implementing the national security law for Hong Kong that would prominently criminalise "separatism, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference", which was widely interpreted as a crackdown on civil liberties, government critics, and the independence movement. [8] Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang suggested that anyone who opposed the coming national security law would be disqualified from September's Legislative Council elections. He stressed that it was everyone's duty to safeguard national security, and the imposition of security laws "is only natural". [9]
After some candidates in the July 2020 pro-democracy primaries, and organisers, called for a LegCo majority in order to vote down the budget and other government proposals in order to force the government to accede to the five key demands, Chief Executive Carrie Lam issued a strong warning, saying it was subversive for them to vow to seize control of the legislature and vote down key government proposals. "If this so-called primary election's purpose is to achieve the ultimate goal of delivering what they called '35+' [lawmakers], with the objective of objecting or resisting every policy initiative of the HKSAR government, it may fall into the category of subverting the state power – one of the four types of offences under the national security law," she said. [10]
On 30 July, one day before the nomination period ended, 12 opposition candidates were disqualified from the election. Of these, four were incumbent Legislative Council members: Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung. Activists Joshua Wong and Ventus Lau, incumbent District Councillors Cheng Tat-hung, Fergus Leung, Tiffany Yuen and Lester Shum; former reporter Gwyneth Ho and Civic Passion's Cheng Kam-mun were also banned from running. [1]
In her ruling letter to Gwyneth Ho, returning officer Amy Yeung said, referring to a statement against the national security law from 25 July that Ho had co-signed: "By adopting such an unequivocal expression against the national security law, it casts serious doubt on whether the candidate embraces, promotes, and supports the fundamental principle of 'One Country, Two Systems', and therefore objectively has the genuine and true intention to uphold the Basic Law at the time of the nomination." [11] In her statement, Yeung also referred to the statements of Ho regarding her intent to safeguard national security as "obvious sham". [12] Joshua Wong's disqualification was based on previous statements on "self-determination" made by his disbanded party Demosistō, according to returning officer Alice Choi, as well as Wong's seeking 'foreign interference' in the affairs of the Hong Kong and central government, objection to the national security law and abusing the proper function of lawmakers by forcing the government to accede to certain demands after securing a majority as Choi's ruling stated. [11]
Constituency | Candidate | Affiliation | Advocated for, or promoted Hong Kong independence or the option for self-determination | Solicited intervention by foreign governments in Hong Kong's affairs | Expressed "an objection in principle" to the imposition of the national security law | Expressed "an intention to exercise the functions of a LegCo member by indiscriminately voting down" any legislative proposals | Refused to recognise the PRC's exercise of sovereignty over the Hong Kong SAR | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hong Kong Island | Cheng Kam-mun | Civic Passion | Yes | |||||
Cheng Tat-hung | Civic | Yes | Yes | |||||
Fergus Leung | Independent | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
Tiffany Yuen | Ind. democrat | Yes | Yes | |||||
Kowloon East | Joshua Wong | Ind. democrat | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
New Territories West | Kwok Ka-ki | Civic | Yes | Yes | ||||
New Territories East | Gwyneth Ho | Ind. democrat | Yes | |||||
Ventus Lau | Localist camp | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
Alvin Yeung | Civic | Yes | Yes | |||||
Legal | Dennis Kwok | Civic | Yes | Yes | ||||
Accountancy | Kenneth Leung | Professionals Guild | Yes | |||||
District Council (Second) | Lester Shum | Nonpartisan | Yes | Yes | ||||
At least 21 other opposition candidates were still under review by the returning officers, including six Democratic Party legislators and Joshua Wong's nine allies from the "resistance bloc". "Returning officers are still reviewing the validity of other nominations according to the law. We do not rule out the possibility that more nominations would be invalidated," the government said in a statement. [14] It was reported that Ted Hui, Eddie Chu, Raymond Chan, Jimmy Sham and Sunny Cheung were also going to be disqualified. [15] However, the entire electoral process was suspended after Chief Executive Carrie Lam on 31 July announced that the election would be postponed for a year, citing the resurgence of the COVID-19 cases, leaving the validity of those candidacies unresolved. [16]
The government issued a press release shortly after news of the disqualification spread. The government said it "agrees with and supports" returning officers' decisions to invalidate 12 nominees. "The HKSAR government reiterates that upholding the Basic Law is a fundamental constitutional duty of every LegCo Member. People having the following behaviours could not genuinely uphold the Basic Law and could not therefore perform the duties of a LegCo Member," the statement wrote. [17]
Joshua Wong condemned the government decision to disqualify his candidacy. "I was just disqualified from running in the upcoming LegCo election in Hong Kong, even though I got the highest vote share in the primary, with 31,398 votes obtained," Wong wrote. "The excuse they use is that I describe national security law as a draconian law, which shows that I do not support this sweeping law." [18] Wong also said that it "beyond any doubt the most scandalous election fraud era in Hong Kong history," Wong said. "Our resistance will continue on and we hope the world can stand with us in the upcoming uphill battle." [19]
Alan Leong, chairman of the Civic Party and former legislator who saw four of his party's candidates disqualified, called such a disqualification move by the administration a big insult and harm to Hongkongers' right to vote and right to stand for election that are protected under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. [18]
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned the government decision: "I condemn the decision to disqualify opposition candidates from standing in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council elections." He said it was "clear they have been disqualified because of their political views", adding that "the Hong Kong authorities must uphold their commitments to the people of Hong Kong". The government decision, Raab said, undermined the integrity of "one country, two systems" principle – which stipulates China's relationship with Hong Kong – and the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Hong Kong's Basic Law. [20]
Lawmakers from more than a dozen countries who formed the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) issued a statement condemning "the obstruction of the democratic process" of the Hong Kong government. "We urge the international community to meet this further diminution of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms with a proportionate response," said the group led by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio and former British Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith. Reinhard Bütikofer, the European Parliament member in charge of China, called on European Union authorities to impose sanctions on Chief Executive Carrie Lam. [20]
Chris Patten, former British governor of Hong Kong, called it "an outrageous political purge of Hong Kong’s democrats". "The national security law is being used to disenfranchise the majority of Hong Kong's citizens," Patten said. "It is obviously now illegal to believe in democracy, although this was what Beijing promised in and after the Joint Declaration. This is the sort of behaviour that you would expect in a police state." [20]
Germany announced it was suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong over the delay of the election and disqualification of the opposition candidates. "The Hong Kong government's decision to disqualify a dozen opposition candidates for the election and to postpone the elections ... is a further encroachment on the rights of Hong Kong citizens," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement. "Given the current developments, we have decided to suspend the extradition treaty with Hong Kong." [21]
The European Union High Representative said in a statement that the disqualification of pro-democracy candidates, including sitting legislators previously democratically elected by the people of Hong Kong, weaken Hong Kong's international reputation as a free and open society. The protection of civil and political rights in Hong Kong is a fundamental part of the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, which the EU supports. It called on the Hong Kong authorities to reconsider these decisions. [22]
On 18 November, the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, and the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement condemning the disqualification of pro-democracy legislators as a breach of Hong Kong's autonomy and rights under the framework of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. [23] In response, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Zhao Lijian issued a warning to the Five Eyes countries, stating that "No matter if they have five eyes or 10 eyes, if they dare to harm China's sovereignty, security and development interests, they should beware of their eyes being poked and blinded." [24] [25]
The Kowloon West geographical constituency was one of the five geographical constituencies of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2021. It was established in 1998 for the first SAR Legislative Council election and was abolished under the 2021 overhaul of the Hong Kong electoral system. In the 2016 Legislative Council election, it elected six members of the Legislative Council using the Hare quota of party-list proportional representation. It had 602,733 registered electorates in 2020. The constituency corresponded to the districts of Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po, and Kowloon City.
The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic Law under the "One Country, Two Systems" framework.
The League of Social Democrats (LSD) is a social democratic party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Chan Po-ying, wife of Leung Kwok-hung, it positions itself as the radical wing of the pro-democracy camp and stresses on "street actions" and "parliamentary struggles".
Kenneth Leung Kai-cheong is a democratic Hong Kong politician formerly serving as a member of the Legislative Council for the Accountancy functional constituency. Professionally, he is a tax adviser and accountant. On 11 November 2020, he was disqualified from the Legislative Council, along with three other lawmakers of the pan-democratic camp, by the central government in Beijing on request of the Hong Kong government. A mass resignation of pan-democrats the same day left the Legislative Council without a substantial opposition.
People Power (PP) is a populist and radical democratic political party in Hong Kong. Formerly chaired by Raymond Chan, it belongs to the radical wing of the pro-democracy camp.
The 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 4 September 2016 for the 6th Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). A total of 70 members, 35 from geographical constituencies (GCs) and 35 from functional constituencies (FCs), were returned. The election came after the rejection of the 2016/2017 constitutional reform proposals which suggested the electoral method for the 2016 Legislative Council remains unchanged.
Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu is a Hong Kong barrister and politician. He was formerly the leader of the Civic Party and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing New Territories East after winning the 2016 by-election. On 11 November 2020, Yeung was disqualified from the Legislative Council, along with three other lawmakers of the pan-democratic camp, by the central government in Beijing on request of the Hong Kong government. A mass resignation of pan-democrats the same day left the Legislative Council without a substantial opposition.
Demosisto was a pro-democracy political organisation established on 10 April 2016 as a political party. It was led by Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow – former leaders of Scholarism, along with Nathan Law, former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). Scholarism and the HKFS were the two student activist groups which played an instrumental role in the 79-day occupy protests known as the Umbrella Revolution in 2014.
Nathan Law Kwun-chung is a mainland-Chinese-born activist and politician from Hong Kong. As a former student leader, he has been chairman of the Representative Council of the Lingnan University Students' Union (LUSU), acting president of the LUSU, and secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS). He was one of the student leaders during the 79-day Umbrella Movement in 2014. He is the founding and former chairman of Demosistō, a new political party derived from the 2014 protests.
A controversy arose during the 2016 Legislative Council election in Hong Kong as the Electoral Affairs Commission (EAC) banned six potential localist candidates from running for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo). The EAC carried out a new election measure to require all candidates to sign an additional "confirmation form" in the nomination to declare their understanding of Hong Kong being an inalienable part of China as stipulated in Article 1, Article 12 and Article 159(4) of the Basic Law of Hong Kong.
Lau Siu-lai is a Hong Kong educator, academic, activist, and politician. She is a sociology lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University's Hong Kong Community College and the founder of Democracy Groundwork and Age of Resistance. In 2016, Lau was elected to the Legislative Council, representing the Kowloon West geographical constituency until she was disqualified by the court on 14 July 2017 over her oath-taking manner at the inaugural meeting of the Legislative Council on 12 October 2016.
The Hong Kong Legislative Council members' oath-taking controversy was a series of events surrounding the oaths of office of a dozen pro-democracy and localist camp members-elect of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) on 12 October 2016 which have resulted in the disqualification of six members, Sixtus "Baggio" Leung and Yau Wai-ching of Youngspiration, who were unseated by the court on 15 November 2016, and Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law, Yiu Chung-yim and Lau Siu-lai on 14 July 2017.
The 2019 Hong Kong District Council elections were held on 24 November 2019 for all 18 District Councils of Hong Kong. 452 seats from all directly elected constituencies, out of the 479 seats in total, were contested. Nearly three million people voted, equivalent to 71 per cent of registered voters, an unprecedented turnout in the electoral history of Hong Kong. The election was widely viewed as a de facto referendum on the concurrent anti-extradition protests.
Ventus Lau Wing-hong is a Hong Kong politician. He is the convenor of the Shatin Community Network and the founding convenor of the Community Network Union, an alliance of the localist community groups in different districts. He came to media attention in the 2018 New Territories East by-election and his candidacy was disqualified by the returning officer for his previous pro-Hong Kong independence stance. For his participation in the 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries he was part of a mass arrest on national security charges in January 2021 and remains in jail as of October 2021.
The 2018 Hong Kong Legislative Council by-election was held on 11 March 2018 for four of the six vacancies in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo) - the Hong Kong Island, Kowloon West and New Territories East geographical constituencies and the Architectural, Surveying, Planning and Landscape functional constituency - resulting from the disqualification of six pro-democrat and localist camp Legislative Council members over the 2016 oath-taking controversy. The by-election for the two other seats was not held due to pending legal appeals by the two disqualified legislators.
Fergus Leung Fong-wai is a Hong Kong politician formerly serving as a member of the Central and Western District Council, representing Kwun Lung. Leung ran as an independent Localist camp candidate in the 2019 District Council elections and won his seat with 50.69% of the vote.
The 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries were held on 11 and 12 July 2020 for selecting the numbers of pro-democracy candidates for the subsequently postponed 2020 Legislative Council election to maximise the chance for the pro-democrats to achieve a majority in the 70-seat Legislative Council.
The 2020 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was originally scheduled on 6 September 2020 until it was postponed by the government. On 31 July 2020, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that she was invoking the Emergency Regulations Ordinance to postpone the election under the emergency powers granted to her by it, citing the recent resurgence of the COVID-19 cases, adding that the move was supported by Beijing.
On 11 November 2020, 15 Hong Kong pro-democracy members of the Legislative Council announced their resignations in protest against the decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) which bars Legislative Council members from supporting Hong Kong independence, refusing to recognise Beijing's sovereignty over Hong Kong, seeking help from "foreign countries or foreign forces to interfere in the affairs of the region" or committing "other acts that endanger national security" that resulted in the disqualification of pro-democracy legislators Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung. In July 2020, the four had been barred from running in the subsequently postponed Legislative Council election originally scheduled for September 2020. The resignation en masse left the Legislative Council membership dwindled to 43 out of the total number of 70 seats, with virtually no opposition for the first time since the 1997 handover.
The Public Offices Ordinance 2021 is an ordinance to amend the Oaths and Declarations Ordinance and other relating legislation which adds new requirements for the Chief Executive, Executive Council members, Legislative Council members and judges and other judicial officers, imposes oath-taking requirements on District Council members, and specifies requirements for candidates to swear to uphold the Basic Law and bear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region when assuming office or standing for election and also adds new grounds and mechanism for disqualification from holding the office or being nominated as a candidate. The ordinance was seen as another round of the Beijing authorities to bar the opposition from standing in elections or holding public offices and also raised concerns on the bill's vague parameters of the oath with such over-reaching scope would undermine Hong Kong's judicial independence.