Hong Kong’s biggest opposition party, which is also its largest pro-democracy party, will boycott the upcoming Legislative Council (Legco) election in December that is being touted as a “patriots only” election.
The Democratic Party announced on Monday evening that not a single party member had stepped forward to take part in the election as the internal deadline of October 11 for applications came and went.
In an extraordinary general meeting last month, the party was supposed to come to a decision about contesting the poll. However, at the last minute, it decided to postpone making a formal decision, saying it was not necessary, as none of the members had expressed a desire to contest.
Only one member, former Tiananmen Square activist Han Dongfang, had previously expressed his wish to run. However, he failed to secure even ten nominations from within the party.
According to the party leadership’s new selection mechanism for those wishing to participate in the financial hub’s politics, potential candidates are required to secure a minimum of 40 nominations from fellow members and then get approval from the leadership at a subsequent meeting to qualify.
Following party nominations, a new vetting committee will screen the would-be candidates to determine if they are sufficiently “patriotic” to run. This screening has been decreed by China as part of the overhaul of the financial hub’s electoral system.
In this context, the party leadership has been accused of setting an unrealistic standard. “It was already a foregone conclusion. They set such a vetting mechanism; it is in effect asking members not to run,” said veteran Democrat and former lawmaker Fred Li Wah-ming, who was part of the faction in favour of contesting the Legco election.
Professor Lau Siu-kai, the vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, however, said on Monday that the lack of candidates from the party could be interpreted by Beijing as a form of “soft resistance” because banning members from taking part in the electoral process could be interpreted as the opposition undermining the overhaul.
In May, Hong Kong’s legislature approved a new law that allows the government to remove public officials from office and bar candidates from standing in elections if they are deemed “disloyal” to local authorities or Beijing. Aptly called the Loyalty Law, the law is among a series of measures taken by China to intensify its crackdown on the sovereign freedoms of Hong Kong, which is legally designated as an autonomous region under the “One Country, Two Systems” policy enshrined under the Basic Law.
If the party ultimately fails to put forward a single candidate, this will be the first time that the Democrats will be absent from a local election since Hong Kong’s return to sovereignty in 1997.
Hong Kong’s Biggest Pro-Democracy Party to Shun ‘Patriots Only’ Election
This will be the first time that the Democrats will be absent from a local election since Hong Kong’s return to sovereignty in 1997.
October 12, 2021
SOURCE: DICKSON LEE