Court case possible on whether parties must meet company law disclosure rule
The Democratic Party has decided at the eleventh hour to delay by a month the disclosure of its register of members, and members will consider asking a court to rule on whether revealing their names and addresses is a legal requirement.
The party, which was to have disclosed the names today, is questioning whether the Companies Ordinance, section 98 of which requires disclosure of members' names and addresses, is applicable to political organisations in Hong Kong.
The party's central committee made the decision on the grounds that the section is inconsistent with the protection of privacy and freedom of association enshrined in the Basic Law.
Political parties register as companies to avoid the danger of being closed down by the government, as is permitted if they are registered under the Societies Ordinance.
Speaking after the central committee's meeting, party vice-chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan said that, based on legal opinion from a senior counsel, it had decided to invoke section 99 of the Companies Ordinance to close its membership registers for 30 days from today.
'We will seek further legal opinion in the next 30 days and do not rule out the possibility of filing a legal challenge to the applicability of the ordinance to political organisations in Hong Kong,' he said.
