Opinion | By blocking Joshua Wong from standing for election, Hong Kong is just driving protesters back to the streets

The Hong Kong government’s refusal to allow 23-year-old democracy activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung to contest a local election has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the political crisis.

Wong, arguably the most internationally well-known figure in Hong Kong’s youthful protest movement, had planned to run in elections scheduled for November 24 for a spot in one of Hong Kong’s district councils, the lowest rung of local government. 

The 479 representatives on the 18 councils don’t receive a full-time salary, have no power to pass legislation and serve primarily as an advisory body on such mundane matters as noise pollution and recreational facilities. But the government’s move to bar Wong from running will further inflame an already volatile conflict by underscoring that those in the movement have no viable pathway within the existing system to articulate their concerns.

Although pro-government political organisations, with greater resources and connections, have long dominated the district councils, democracy activists made a conscious decision to contest all 452 directly elected seats this time.

With nearly 400,000 new voters registered during the summer of unrest, the calculation is that the election could give pro-democracy forces a popular mandate for their demands for more representative government and the preservation of the freedoms Beijing promised Hong Kong after the 1997 handover.