Fri 31 July 2020:
Joshua Wong, one in every of Hong Kong’s most distinguished democracy campaigners, on Friday stated the pro-democracy camp would proceed their combat for freedom after officers disqualified some pro-democracy candidates from working in September’s legislative elections and native media reported the ballot might be postponed.
Elections for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, often called LegCo, are resulting from happen on September 6.
Solely half of the 70 seats are immediately elected by Hong Kong folks, with 30 chosen by particular curiosity teams who’re principally pro-Beijing and the remaining 5 seats occupied by popularly-elected district councillors.
Hong Kong on Thursday disqualified a dozen candidates from the competition, together with 23-year-old Wong.
Advocating for independence, soliciting intervention by overseas governments, or “expressing an objection in precept” to a nationwide safety regulation that China imposed on the territory earlier this month have been behaviours that “couldn’t genuinely” uphold the Primary Legislation, the federal government stated in a press release.
Wong, who was wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the phrases “You possibly can’t kill us all”, instructed the media that Hong Kong’s new nationwide safety was a “authorized weapon used towards dissidents” and the disqualification of pro-democracy candidates probably the most “scandalous election fraud in Hong Kong historical past”.
“Our resistance will proceed,” he added.
Doubts about whether or not the election will even go forward have grown over the previous week with a number of native media shops reporting that the federal government will postpone the ballot due to the bounce in coronavirus circumstances.
Cable TV on Friday reported that the territory’s Chief Govt Carrie Lam would maintain a information convention at 6pm (10:00 GMT) the place she would announce the election can be postponed.
China imposed the brand new laws, looking for to punish what it termed secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with overseas forces. The regulation, which bypassed Hong Kong’s legislature, adopted months of pro-democracy protests that started in June final yr and at occasions descended into violence.
Supporters of the regulation say it should carry stability after a yr of anti-China unrest. Critics describe it as an assault on Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms, which have been promised beneath the “one nation, two methods” framework agreed when the town was returned to Chinese language rule by the British in 1997.
On Thursday, 4 college students, the youngest simply 16 years previous, have been arrested over social media posts that have been deemed in breach of the regulation, the primary to be made by a brand new devoted police unit.
