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Pan-democrats head into their meeting with the chairman of the election watchdog. Photo: Sam Tsang

Civic Party candidates refuse to sign new form despite head of electoral watchdog saying rule change is legal

Earlier meeting with Electoral Affairs Commission chairman Justice Barnabas Fung Wah left pan-democrats confused and dissatisfied

Civic Party candidates will not sign the additional form required by a controversial rule change for the Legislative Council polls in September, party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit has declared.

Instead, Sumly Chan Yuen-sum, the party’s candidate for the so-called “super seat”, will issue a letter to returning officers on Wednesday as he signs up for the polls, urging them to confirm his candidacy as soon as possible – even without the form in question.

The Electoral Affairs Commission introduced an abrupt measure last week requiring candidates to sign an extra form declaring the city an inalienable part of China, on top of making the standard declaration to uphold the Basic Law.

“The election period is short, and we need to make good use of the time for campaigning,” Leong told Commercial Radio on Wednesday morning.

“We will track the returning officers every day to see if our candidates are qualified [without signing the additional form].”

The new form was a bid to limit freedom of expression, and his party members had decided not to sign it following a deliberation the previous night, he said.

The decision came not long after the head of the city’s election watchdog Justice Barnabas Fung Wah had insisted on Tuesday that there was a legal basis for the rule change after meeting a group of concerned pan-democrats, who were left confused and dissatisfied by his answers.

After a meeting, lasting an hour and a quarter, with 12 pan-democrats he was quoted as saying that a new requirement, for candidates to sign an extra form declaring the city an inalienable part of China, was not a binding statement and their eligibility to run would not be affected if they refused to sign. He said it was only an “administrative convenience measure” to help returning officers perform their duties and they could even draft their own declaration, they recalled.

The watchdog introduced the new requirement – which targets independence advocates – abruptly last week, ahead of the start of the nomination period.

On top of making the standard declaration to uphold the Basic Law, candidates are also required to sign a new form to confirm a clear understanding of the city’s mini-constitution and its status.

“We asked the Honourable Justice Fung whether there is any legal basis to compel a candidate to sign this confirmation form,” the Civic Party’s Dennis Kwok said. “He was not able to do that.”

Dennis Kwok said Fung couldn’t give the legal basis for the rule change. Photo: Sam Tsang

While the government declared last week that those who did not sign the new form would be disqualified from running and those who lied when signing it could face criminal action, Fung was quoted as singing a different and more compromising tune.

But in his statement later, he was less specific, only saying that returning officers would seek legal advice on what to do if candidates refused to sign.

The pan-democrats remained unconvinced, and insisted the new rule should be scrapped.

“I think it actually creates lots of confusion, grey areas and inconvenience,” Kwok said.

Pan-democrats have argued that the Basic Law as a whole should be respected and the election watchdog should not just highlight the three clauses on sovereignty.

It also emerged that the commission only came up with the new rules in less than a month, after the last Legco constitutional affairs panel meeting on June 20.

“I think the commission’s handling is very bad as it should still have consulted the lawmakers as well as the public even after the panel meeting was over,” Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said. “They claimed the rule was a result of careful consideration but I think it was made in haste.”

Most pan-democrat and localist candidates, including Edward Leung Tin-kei of pro-independence group Hong Kong Indigenous, have refused to sign when registering for the polls.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Demanding Legco candidates pledge on sovereignty ‘legal’
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