Refusal to sign HK election papers an attention-seeking ploy

By Chen Qingqing and Zhao Yusha Source: Global Times Published: 2020/7/19 23:16:37

Photo: Xinhua



Candidates from HK's anti-government camps -- including secessionist Joshua Wong Chi-fung --who refuse to sign nomination papers requiring them to pledge to uphold Hong Kong's Basic Law are simply making meaningless political gestures, aimed at enhancing their political profile. 

The nomination period for the 2020 Legislative Council (LegCo) General Election in Hong Kong starts Saturday and runs until July 31.

"Any candidate who wishes to run in the election must, in accordance with Section 40(1)(b)(i) of the Legislative Council Ordinance, sign a declaration on the nomination form stating the person will uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Otherwise, he or she cannot be a valid candidate," a spokesperson for the Electoral Affairs Commission told reporters on Thursday. 

Some members of the city's opposition camps, including Wong, said they don't intend to the declaration of allegiance to the city. 

Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai and two candidates from the People Power party on Wednesday became the first to publicly say they will not sign the declaration form.

Their defiance, which disqualifies them as candidates, serves as a political gesture without any practical meaning, Kennedy Wong Ying-ho, solicitor of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, told the Global Times.

Wong said that the opposition camps are divided into two groups. There are those like Wong, who intend to use their political resources to support the other group after they are disqualified. This devious strategy means they will still have a voice in the city's politics. 

 Li Xiaobing, expert on Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, from Nankai University told the Global Times that the opposition camps only seek to enhance their political presence by staging such a high-profile defiance. 

"They also seek to use their disqualification as another excuse to create further turmoil," said Li. 



Posted in: HK/MACAO/TAIWAN

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