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Despite having barred nearly all pro-democracy runners, from young progressive groups to traditional moderate parties from the LegCo election, the local government said the elections were being organized in a fair and honest manner.
Civic Party’s leader Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki, and Tat Cheng nominations were ruled as invalid by returning officers on Thursday.
Lester Shum and Tiffany Yuen also announced on Facebook that they were barred from running in the Legislative Council election.
Civic Passion’s Alvin Cheng, Central and Western District Councillor Fergus Leung, pro-democracy lawmaker Kenneth Leung and activists Ventus Lau and Gwyneth Ho were also banned.
According to the spokesperson of the government dozen candidates had been disqualified because all nominees must uphold the Basic Law, according to which lawmakers cannot promote self-determination or independence for the former British colony.
the spokesperson Said the nominations were not in compliance with the requirement under the Legislative Council Ordinance.
More nominations might be invalidated.
Joshua Wong (you can find our interviews here, here and here), the founder of pro-democracy political party Demosisto, disbanded before the new national security law took effect a month ago, said he was disqualified from the LegCo election despite being the biggest winner in Hong Kong primaries.
[I was just disqualified from LegCo election, despite being the biggest winner in #Hkprimaries]
— Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) July 30, 2020
1. Few minutes ago, I was just disqualified from running in the upcoming LegCo election in #Hongkong, even though I got the highest vote share in the primary, w/ 30000+ votes obtained pic.twitter.com/sC3XWbBlsq
The party was disbanded to avoid being caught under the newly passed national security law.
Running officer Alice Choi wrote Wong had continued to pursue the objectives and political agenda of the party, including through engaging in the “international front”, despite Wong said he accepted Beijing´s sovereignty in his reply to Choi ´s statement.
Thus Choi concluded that Wong did not have a “genuine intention” to uphold the Basic Law.
After months of political unrest, last November, the pro-democracy movement won a landslide victory in the district council elections, considered to be a referendum on the government’s actions.
China’s imposition of controversial national security legislation, criminalizing secession, sedition, terrorism, and foreign interference have been fiercely criticized abroad and led to sanctions against Hong Kong.
Last Updated on 2020/07/30