Hong Kong pro-establishment candidates could lose votes following bookseller revelations
Analysts and lawmakers worry that more people may vote for pan-democratic camp in September’s Legislative Council elections
As people across the political spectrum hold their breath following Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee’s revelation of what happened to him in the past eight months, pro-establishment politicians appear to be potential losers from the political fallout.
Professor Lau Siu-kai, former head of the Hong Kong government’s think tank, the Central Policy Unit, said the controversy would unavoidably reinforce the perception of a substantial proportion of people that the “one country, two systems” formula was being encroached on by some mainland departments.
Lam, one of the five booksellers who went missing last year, revealed at a press conference on Thursday that he was kidnapped at the border in October and put through eight months of mental torture.
He said he was accompanied by two mainland interrogators when he returned to Hong Kong on Tuesday, sparking concerns about whether mainland law enforcement officers were taking the law into their own hands in the city.
The 61-year-old said he was released because the interrogators wanted him to bring back a hard disc containing more information about the bookstore’s mainland customers.