Refusing to sign: Demosisto joins ranks of Hong Kong politicians resisting controversial change in Legco election rules
Chairman Nathan Law won’t sign form confirming understanding of city’s status as part of China, may seek judicial review if any candidate is disqualified for doing so
Yet another political group has vowed to launch a legal challenge against a controversial addition to the city’s election rules if any candidate is disqualified for defying the change.
The change, which targets independence advocates, requires that candidates, in addition to making the standard declaration to uphold the Basic Law, must also sign a new form to confirm a clear understanding of the mini-constitution – mainly concerning Hong Kong’s status as a special administrative region of China.
Refusal to sign means risking disqualification from the Legislative Council elections on September 4.
Submitting his application for candidacy on Hong Kong Island, Demosisto chairman Nathan Law Kwun-chung said: “I will not sign the confirmation form because I would not allow the electoral affairs commission to impose such a term unlawfully.”
“If the commission bars any candidate from running because he or she did not sign the form, I will consider filing a judicial review,” he added.
Demosisto was formed this year by the student leaders at the centre of the 79-day Occupy protests in 2014. They include Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Oscar Lai Man-Lok and Agnes Chow-ting from the now-suspended student group Scholarism. Law is a former leader of the Federation of Students, a coalition of university students’ unions.
Apart from Law, at least 12 pro-democracy candidates have refused to sign the confirmation form when signing up for the polls. Pan-democrats complained that the new rules amounted to political censorship and planned to meet the chief of the city’s election watchdog over the matter on Tuesday.
People Power, the League of Social Democrats, Hong Kong Indigenous and the Kowloon East Community Concern Group had said they would seek judicial review if a candidate was disqualified because of his or her refusal to sign the form.
Law also reiterated that he was running on the island to promote his party’s “ABCD” campaign.
“Pan-democrats wanted to work with pro-establishment parties to push for ‘ABC’, or ‘anyone but CY Leung’ for chief executive next year. But we believe that it’s not enough – we need D, or self-determination for Hong Kong,” Law explained.